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078-0203-00L 3 Credits MSC , NDS D-ARCH
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Urban Ecology

Lecturers & Examiners: PD Dr. Christoph Küffer Schumacher
VVZ CR n/a

Last Updated: 2026-02-05 16:38:22

Abstract

Green cities and nature-based solutions have become central themes of architecture and territorial planning. The course enables students to apply ecological thinking to urban design.

Objective

• Students get introduced to the thinking of ecologists and the basic concepts of ecology and evolution to be able to approach design and planning questions from an ecological perspective and to interact with ecologists. • The city is introduced as an ecological system and the key elements of urban ecology are discussed. • The relevance of ecological and evolutionary processes and patterns for urban design and planning are discussed based on contemporary real-world examples. • The intersections between ecological science and new philosophical concepts of relevance to urban design are explored, e.g. Anthropocene, biophilic design, species coexistence, or animal-aided design.

Content

We will extensively discuss applications of ecological principles in urban planning and design projects, and highlight timely topics such as Anthropocene, biophilia, rhizomatous networks of plant roots and fungi hyphen, or wilderness vs. ecological design. Based on the fundamentals from ecological science and evolutionary biology we aim to understand the ecological characteristics of urban systems from city centres to metropolitan areas and across different land uses (agriculture, forestry, recreational, infrastructures, buildings, urban greenspaces). The module is structured along five levels of biological organisation: genes and populations (evolution), physiology and adaptations, species interactions and communities (biodiversity), ecosystem ecology, and landscape ecology.

Resources

Learning Materials (Links)

General Information

Language
English
Levels
MSC , NDS
Frequency
Yearly recurring

Examination

Type
ungraded semester performance

Course Components

Type Title Time & Place Hours
lecture with exercise Urban Ecology
No course 21.3.2024 (seminar week). Final review day (obligatory): date and details will follow.
  • Thu 08:45-11:30 (HPK D 24.2)
45 h semesterly

Offered In

  • Landscape Architecture Master
    • Specialized Courses (The specialized courses are freely selectable and offer students the opportunity to acquire in-depth knowledge in certain areas of landscape architecture. The details for the performance assessments are regulated in Art. 27.)
  • MAS in Urban and Territorial Design (The MAS in Urban and Territorial Design requires one year of full-time postgraduate study for a 60 ECTS joint degree, the “MAS ETH EPF UTD”. It is taught in English and held at the two Swiss schools, EPFL (Autumn) and ETH Zurich (Spring).)