We are going to design a bath in the nearby forest. You are going to acquire profound knowledge about structural concepts and work with contradictions and corresponding aspects between spacial structure and support structure. Further key aspects are materials and their inherent properties, light and the roof structure as such. The specific context of the forest strongly informs the design process.

Based on selected buildings we study the basic principles of a timeless, urban architecture. Fieldwork is an essential part of the design. The selection of building includes various periods and purposes. Out of real houses we develop independent, ideal architectures.

The ever-growing built fabric exerts high pressure on land reserves. Reframing existing structures will therefore be one of the major tasks of the architect in the future. Especially as many surprising innovations are rooted on the foundations of other structures or have occurred through a change of use, we want to engage in the topics of extension, alteration and refurbishment.

Bahnhofstrasse is the site of the most dramatic changes in Zurich. 19th century urbanisation saw it turn Zurich from a town on the river to a city on the lake.The end of shopping has been approaching slowly but surely since we became digital, until Covid dealt it a final blow. Manor is gone. The others will follow. But what will happen to Bahnhofstrasse?

We design residential buildings in the urban context of the city of Zurich. From a selection of construction sites, you determine the best suited for your project and develop a specific form of living right down to the materialization in detail. Inspirational buildings, whose architectural elements and spatial situations are the inspiration for your living ideas, serve as the starting point.

We design residential buildings in the urban context of the city of Zurich. From a selection of construction sites, you determine the best suited for your project and develop a specific form of living right down to the materialization in detail. Inspirational buildings, whose architectural elements and spatial situations are the inspiration for your living ideas, serve as the starting point.

We shall design an arena, a public building for performing and watching sport. With origins as landscape structures in ancient times, arenas are typically defined by ground; dug in, cut and sculpted earth and stone. Then they rose out of the ground as pure-structure never fully enclosed.

What about the historic city centre?Design an urban project with a concrete program in four steps:1. Reading of the place, recognition of potentials2. Translation of the findings into a scenario - social, political3. Through architectural principles: Translation into a spatial structure4. Develop a real project

What will the workplace of tomorrow look like?Designing a project in four steps:1. Envisioning scenarios about the future of the workplace.2. Design of a spatial system to the scenario.3. Translating the system into an architectural structure in wood.4. Developing of the real project.

In the 4th semester, we design residential buildings in an urban context. Within the quarter analysed in the 3rd semester, you are going to choose your own site and develop a specific housing project for the respective location. The starting point is provided by building elements and spatial situations, which we measure during visits of buildings at the beginning of the semester.

The provocation that ‘shopping is over’ which opened last semester HS20 has turned out be truer than imagined. Department stores are falling around the world. We will consider a future for the legendary Zurich department store Jelmoli. Not because it is failing, but because of its continued success.

It is the elective's object to become aquainted with a material and its processing in a exploring and experimental manner. It aims to raise the awareness of the relation of material, construction, form and architectural expression.

The elective works serve an in depth case study through the construction of a 1:1 mock-up.

It is the elective's object to become aquainted with a material and its processing in a exploring and experimental manner. It aims to raise the awareness of the relation of material, construction, form and architectural expression.

As part of a restoration project by the interdisciplinary research collective "Boulouki" on the Greek island of Thirasia, site-specific craft techniques are being revived. The focus of the investigation is the abandoned cave settlement Agrilia, the restoration of the natural stone path to the settlement with accompanying dry stone walls and two cisterns sealed with pozzolanic plaster.