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Digital Pedagogy for Data-driven Unsolicited Urban Design

Marco Pagani, Michael Walczak, Hubert Klumpner
2025
DOI

As urban environments evolve with increasing complexity, urban planning must adapt by often responding to unsolicited demands rather than to commissioned, structured work. This paper explores the integration of digital tools – including Digital Twins – into the architectural curriculum at ETH Zurich, aiming to bridge the gap between data-driven site analysis and data-driven design.

The study focuses on the application of these methods in real-world contexts, such as the Urban Transformation Project Sarajevo, where students from ETH Zurich and the University of Sarajevo applied the acquired knowledge to the development of a new Urban Plan for Sarajevo. The impact of the newly introduced digital pedagogies is investigated within existing lectures and through innovative learning environments, such as hackathons for architects. The outcomes highlight the potential of digital literacy in supporting future urban planners. By introducing digital tools through project-based learning, students were enabled to connect data-driven site analysis with data-driven unsolicited design processes, fostering a more holistic understanding of urban planning.

Journal: ETH Learning and Teaching Journal
Volume: Vol. 5 No. 1 (2025): Learning through projects and practical work

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This article has been published in the following newsletter edition:

66 | Juni 2025: Human Landscape Interaction / Interaktion Mensch Landschaft

  • Hybrides Entwerfen für multikodierte Wasserlandschaften
  • From Design to Research to Play: A Co-creative Process for Designing a Serious Game on Flood Management
  • Agrarian Urbanism and the Politics of Food and Land
  • Experimental Planting: Garden of the 21st Century New Orleans
  • Mapping Future Development Scenarios Through Spatial Clustering with Land Use Models
  • Wiederbelebung marginaler Räume: Eine Praxis der imaginativen Aktivierung
  • Care, Cooperation, and Commoning: Revisiting «The System Nobody Knows»
Kurzmeldungen | Short Messages
  • “The lack of vision has led transport policy down a dead end.”
  • David Kaufmann is New Editor-in-Chief of the disP – The Planning Review
  • Swisstopo-Kolloquium: Präzisionsmodellierung auf grossem Massstab in der Landschaftsarchitektur
  • Reasons to feel confident
  • E-Bike City: Results
  • Beyond Maintenance: Responsive Practices for Changing Landscapes
Publikationen | Publications
  • Launch of the Atlas of Regenerative Materials
  • Digital Pedagogy for Data-driven Unsolicited Urban Design
  • The E-Bike City. Designing Sustainable Streets
  • disP 60/4, December 2024
Weiterbildung | Studiengänge | Further Education
  • Master of Advanced Studies ETH in Regenerative Systems
  • MAS Raumentwicklung & CAS Raumentwicklung und Planungspraxis
  • Design++ XR in AEC Summer School 2025
Aktuell | Current
  • 10 Jahre Zwischennutzung am Sihlquai
  • 10-Minuten-Nachbarschaften
  • First International Earth Construction Forum (ECF)
  • DELUS Chasing Water at Microscope
  • Designing Resilient Regenerative Systems – Regenerative Practices, Pitching MAS QUEST Projects
  • Venice Biennale: Designs of Resilient Landscapes for Flood-Prone Areas of Antananarivo

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Prof. Dr. Bryan T. Adey
Prof. Dr. Tom Avermaete
Prof. Maria Conen
Prof. Dr. Francesco Corman
Dr. Jennifer Duyne Barenstein
Prof. Teresa Galí-Izard
Prof. Dr. Adrienne Grêt-Regamey
Prof. Dr. Guillaume Habert
Prof. Dr. Eva Heinen
Prof. Damian Jerjen
Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann
Prof. Hubert Klumpner
Dr. Anastasios Kouvelas
Prof. Freek Persyn
Prof. Milica Topalovic
Prof. Martina Voser

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