VVZ API is not affiliated with ETH Zurich. Data might be outdated or incorrect. Please view the official ETHZ Vorlesungsverzeichnis for binding information.
New Civic Landscapes and Public Health
Last Updated: 2026-02-05 15:55:16
Abstract
From diverse examples of landscape’s ‘dual network’ – the two systems of ‘natural’ ecological armatures and ‘cultural’ infrastructural armatures – original research is developed. A combination of lectures and exercises provide the fundamental concepts, information resources and practical skills for participants to research and design with landscape systems that create and support public health.
Objective
Approaching landscapes as ‘dual networks’ within watershed systems, fundamental principles of ‘environmental etiology’ will be introduced and repeatedly reinforced in such a way as to facilitate students’ ambitions as researchers and designers, empowering them to more effectively engage with pedagogy, practice, and policy in their current academic research and in their future professional careers.
Content
The course is structured so as to support participants to develop their own related research subject through their own scholarship and design efforts, resulting in a design report. Featuring many previously unpublished examples of successful, experimental landscape systems, the lectures will introduce an alternative history that provides alternative readings of current conditions. The course is organized around core principles of civic design, public health and landscape systems at the scale of the watershed – including riverine and wetland systems, steep slopes subject to erosion, soil stability and soil quality, and varied forests, meadows, wilds and productive landscapes. The overall structure of the course introduces ‘The Five Swiss Watersheds Project’ (Adige, Danube, Po, Rhone, Rhine) in light of climate change and Switzerland’s existing habitats, communities, and material cycles. In this ‘dual network’, ‘nature and culture’ interpretation of landscape the interactions and dependencies of rural and urban settlements are mirrored in the physical intersections of river corridors and highway overpasses: these ‘crossings’ are a subject of particular interest in regards to public health.
Resources
Lecture Notes
There are three types of lectures. The first category consists of introductory lectures that give an overview of the topics and methodology, providing a coherent series of global examples of ‘civic landscapes for public health’, considered then in relation to conditions in Switzerland by way of comparison. The second category of lectures are presentations from local experts in each of the specific topics covered in the course. Thirdly are group and individual research and design exercises (or excursions, pending Covid 19 regulations) that will reveal the explicit relationships between environment and well-being, demonstrating the fundamentally civic nature of landscapes for public health.
Literature
The course material includes a reading list.
Learning Materials (Links)
- Main link
- Information
General Information
- Language
- English
- Levels
- MSC
- Frequency
- Yearly recurring
Examination
- Type
- graded semester performance
Registration & Places
- Max Places
- 18
Course Components
| Type | Title | Time & Place | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| lecture |
New Civic Landscapes and Public Health
No course on 25.3. (seminar week), during Easter Holidays and Public Holidays and before the final critiques.
|
|
2 h weekly |
Offered In
-
-
-
-
Core Courses (The core courses build on the basic courses and convey basic, broad knowledge in the core areas of landscape architecture in relation to design lessons. Some of the core courses are compulsory and some are freely selectable. Further details, in particular about taking these subjects, for performance assessments and for compensating for failed subjects, are regulated in Art. 27 and Art. 31 Paragraph 4.)
-