Building cities is not solely a matter planners, designers, and developers, but also of the public. Urban Scale Models are well equipped to enable public participation in such development processes. This course focusses on such physical models, and provides students with an historical, theoretical and personal understanding of the urban scale model as a public tool.

‘Sites-and-services’ was an important housing paradigm that was mobilized in the context of development aid to provide cost-efficient housing for the global poor. Since these were essentially unfinished projects that relied on their future inhabitants to complete their dwellings, in this seminar we discuss what we can learn from the histories of such atypical housing projects.

The automobile has reshaped our conceptions of space and our modes of accessing and penetrating the urban and non-urban territory, revolutionizing how architects perceive the city and contributing significantly to the transformation of the relationship between architecture and urban space. The seminar examines architects’ automobile vision.

This Fachsemester focuses on the green commons of Zürich: the many forests, pastures, gardens, allotment gardens, parks, fields, lawns, … that characterize the city. We explore how they are manifested, produced, managed, used, maintained, and appropriated. Green commons offer new perspectives on contemporary challenges such as climate change, urban food provision and densification.

Cities have always been places of common resources and practices. While designing and constructing the architecture of the city, architects, urban designers, builders, inhabitants have had to engage with a pool of common resources: inherited common-pool resources (water, nature, air); material common-pool resources (clay, brick, stone, wood) and immaterial common-pool resources (craft, knowledge).

In this subject semester titled ‘Building Local - Printing Global 1450-1850’ we examine the role locality plays in architecture and architectural theory in this period. Focussing on the relationship between books and architecture, we explore both local architecture in Switzerland and locality in buildings in major cities as Rome, Paris and London vs. the globality of early-modern print culture.

This Research Studio focuses on the entanglements of the architectural and urban histories of Switzerland and the history of global colonialism. Through architecture-specific research methods, it investigates how centuries of colonialism have historically influenced the aesthetic, construction and craft cultures of Swiss cities, and explores ways to engage with these contested legacies today.

Material Commons and the City: ZurichThis Research Studio focuses on the material commons of Zurich and explores how local material resources influence the aesthetic, construction and craft cultures. It attempts to answer questions as: What are the material commons and how do architects and other citizens engage with them? How do material resources produce a common architectural and urban idiom?

Material Commons and the City: ZurichThis Research Studio focuses on the material commons of Zurich and explores how local material resources influence the aesthetic, construction and craft cultures. It attempts to answer questions as: What are the material commons and how do architects and other citizens engage with them? How do material resources produce a common architectural and urban idiom?

This Research Studio focuses on the entanglements of the architectural and urban histories of Switzerland and the history of global colonialism. Through architecture-specific research methods, it investigates how centuries of colonialism have historically influenced the aesthetic, construction and craft cultures of Swiss cities, and explores ways to engage with these contested legacies today.

The subject semester (to choose out of two topics) includes the individual, independent processing of a specific task, whereby the relevance of the respective discipline is examined with regard to the specific architectural and design aspects of the task.

"Who Cares?" Architecture and Care: A collective ManifestoWhat is care? Therapy, prevention, maintenance, affection, empathy, monitoring, paying attention?Who takes care? Nurses, doctors, family members, scientists, shamans, architects?What is cared for? Children, melting glaciers, birds, decaying houses?Students are invited to give answers to these questions.

Housing Commons and the City: ZurichFocuses on the housing commons of Zurich, namely collectively owned, non-profit forms of housing ownership (e.g. cooperatives). In the ways that they have been produced, managed, used, maintained, and appropriated, housing commons offer new perspectives to think about contemporary urban challenges such as densification, housing demand, and sustainability.

The theme of this History Research Studio is ‘Female Agency in Architecture before 1850’. The Studio aims at exploring the crucial role women played in the birth, life and afterlife of buildings in the early modern period. We will study female patronage, authorship, and criticism in architecture.

The subject semester (to choose out of two topics) includes the individual, independent processing of a specific task, whereby the relevance of the respective discipline is examined with regard to the specific architectural and design aspects of the task.

Paying Attention: A Collective Manifesto.Attention is a rare commodity. How do we deal with attention? How is it manipulated? Who pays?Students produce autonomous texts.

Zürich’s Land CommonsThis Research Studio focuses on the land commons of Zürich and explores how the ways in which land is managed and appropriated influences the construction of the city. What are land commons and how do architects and how do architects and other citizens engage with them? How do they help us in addressing the social, political, and environmental challenges of our time?

This Research Studio focuses on the entanglements of the architectural and urban histories of Switzerland and the history of global colonialism. Through architecture-specific research methods, it investigates how centuries of colonialism have historically influenced the aesthetic, construction and craft cultures of Swiss cities, and explores ways to engage with these contested legacies today.

This Research Studio focuses on the entanglements of the architectural and urban histories of Switzerland and the history of global colonialism. Through architecture-specific research methods, it investigates how centuries of colonialism have historically influenced the aesthetic, construction and craft cultures of Swiss cities, and explores ways to engage with these contested legacies today.

This Research Studio focuses on the entanglements of the architectural and urban histories of Switzerland and the history of global colonialism. Through architecture-specific research methods, it investigates how centuries of colonialism have historically influenced the aesthetic, construction and craft cultures of Swiss cities, and explores ways to engage with these contested legacies today.