In this NSL Newsletter, we explore how People and Politics intersect in shaping cities and landscapes. From the cultural journey of the Araucaria araucana to data-driven strategies for sustainable urban mobility, the articles highlight how choices and power dynamics influence our environments. We address the political dimensions of climate adaptation in housing, revisit the still-urgent question of what a non-sexist city could look like, and examine the housing struggles of displaced people in Bogotá and Beirut. The issue also presents NEWROPE’s recent efforts to document and share pedagogical experiments that expand architectural practice. Together, these contributions reveal how deeply political our built environments are—and how people continue to shape and challenge them.
We hope you enjoy reading this informative newsletter.
Camila Medina Novoa | Chair of Being Alive, Landscape Architecture
A single species can tell us much about taste, power, and the cultural choices behind how we shape landscapes. Connected to the doctoral project Making Ornamental Trees, this article reflects on the Araucaria araucana, a conifer, and the stories carried by its long journey from the Andes in South America to European gardens.
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Orlando Roman | Infrastructure Management, Prof. Dr. Bryan T. Adey
The Sustainable Urban Transitions (SUT) Lab was launched in April 2025 as a partnership of ETH Zurich and the Bolt Urban Fund, with the aim of supporting cities in accelerating their shift towards low-carbon, multimodal mobility systems. The SUT Lab aims to bring innovative, data-driven research into practical solutions for city planning teams, to accelerate and optimise their sustainable urban mobility and infrastructure planning.
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Dr. Hannah Widmer | ETH Wohnforum – ETH CASE
Der Klimawandel erfordert tiefgreifende Massnahmen in allen Lebens- und Wirtschaftsbereichen. Ein Schwerpunkt liegt auf dem Wohnungswesen und dem Städtebau, die eine grosse Hebelwirkung für mehr Energieeffizienz und weniger CO2-Emissionen, aber auch für Anpassungsmassnahmen wie Hitzeminderung durch Begrünung oder Entsiegelung aufweisen. Doch welche Wechselwirkungen entstehen zwischen grünen Massnahmen und dem Wohnungsmarkt?
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María Novas Ferradás | History and Theory of Urban Design, Prof. Tom Avermaete
What would a non-sexist city look like? That was the question urban historian Dolores Hayden posed in 1980, during the transitional period between the second and third waves of feminism in the United States— a question that, more than forty years later, feels increasingly urgent across different parts of the world.
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Prof. David Kaufmann, Dr. David Kostenwein, Bruna Rohling | Spatial Development and Urban Policy
Displaced people often struggle to find affordable and dignified housing in cities, relying on the informal market. This is also true in Bogotá and Beirut, which host large numbers of displaced persons. This project explores and compares the housing challenges faced by displaced persons in the two cities to improve their housing situation and the overall humanitarian housing response.
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Lukas Fink, Charlotte Schaeben, Prof. Freek Persyn | Architecture and Urban Transformation, NEWROPE
During the last year, members of the Chair of Architecture and Urban Transformation (also known as NEWROPE) have documented and systematised the chair’s teaching experiments – to set examples and to invite others to explore and perform “Working on Transformation” themselves. The examples revolve around pedagogical experiments, with the aim to expand the practice of architecture – to transform the scripts and re-imagine the spaces that shape our reality.
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Kurzmeldungen | Short Messages
Wir gratulieren Prof. em. Dr. Christian Schmid herzlich zur goldenen Eule. Die Goldene Eule zeichnet besonders engagierte Lehrpersonen aus, die ihren Studierenden eine exzellente Lehre bieten. Verliehen wird der Preis vom Verband der Studierenden an der ETH Zürich (VSETH).
Hochparterre hat die besten Projekte in den Disziplinen Architektur, Design und Landschaftsarchitektur gekürt. Wir gratulieren Prof. Martina Voser zum goldenen Hasen für Landschaftsarchitektur. Das Projekt: Schutzbauten Bondo II, Bondo GR | Mavo, Zürich, und Müller Illien, Zürich | Bauherrschaft: Gemeinde Bergell.
If you agree and would like to have a printed poster to hang on your wall – accompanying you for half a year with events in the fields of urban design, spatial planning, landscape architecture, infrastructure, and mobility – just let us know. We will be happy to send you the NSL event poster twice a year. The next edition will be released in February 2026.
Publikationen | Publications
This is a selection. Find a complete list in the ETH Zürich Research Collection.
Freek Persyn, Lukas Fink, Charlotte Schaeben, Rory McGrath (editors)
The publication Working on Transformation documents and systematises the teaching experiments, undertaken by NEWROPE over the past six years.
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Noëlle Klein, Alina Suter, Adrienne Grêt-Regamey
Im Rahmen des Aktionsplans Biodiversität wurden neue Erkenntnisse zum aktuellen Stand, zur Nachfrage und zu Hindernissen der Berücksichtigung von Ökosystemleistungen (ÖSL) in raumrelevanten Entscheidungen veröffentlicht. Der Schlussbericht eines vom BAFU beauftragten Projekts sowie eine neue Website der ETH unterstützen Fachpersonen dabei, geeignete Planungstools zu finden.
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Cara Turett, Carolina Acevedo
This article examines the intersection of wildfire, drought and extractivism through the case study of the Jardín del Siglo XXI (JSXXI, the Garden of the Twenty-first Century), a garden-based research project in Huertos Familiares, a community in Tiltil, Chile, increasingly affected by fire.
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disP – The Planning Review, Volume 61, Issue 3, September 2025 is now available online.
Gender Perspectives on Climate Change: Transforming Spatial Planning.
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Weiterbildung | Studiengänge | Further Education
Apply now for Autumn 2026!
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Application: 15 December 2025 – 14 March 2026 | Duration: May – September 2026.
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Bewerbung: 1 Oktober – 15 Dezember (laufende Zulassung) | Studiendauer: Februar – Juli 2026.
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Application: 1 January – 31 March 2026 | Duration: September 2026 – June 2027.
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100%, Zurich, fixed-term.
The doctoral programme at the Institute of History and Theory of Architecture (gta), ETH Zurich, offers two fellowship positions to start on 1 October 2026.
This programme focuses on the history and theory of architecture and urbanism in a wider context of cultural history, including the history and theory of art, science and technology. Job description
This is a selection. Head over to our News-Page for more.
10 December 2025 (exhibition opening) – 31 January 2026 | in two key locations in Jerusalem.
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11 – 12 December 2025 | Exhibition | ETH Zürich, Zentrum, main hall, Rämistr. 101.
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21 Januar 2026, 9∶00 | ETH Zürich, Zentrum, Audimax (HG F 30).
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27 January – 19 May 2026 | Public Lectures and Exhibition
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28. Januar 2026, 18:30 | L200, Langstr. 200, Zürich.
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26 February 2026, 19:00 | Book Launch | ZAZ BELLERIVE Zentrum Architektur Zürich.
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27.2.2026 – 25.6.2026 | Exhibition Opening, Events | ZAZ BELLERIVE Zentrum Architektur Zürich .
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12 & 13 March 2026 | ETH Zürich, ONA, Neunbrunnenstrasse 50, Zürich Oerlikon.
The Spring 2026 NSL Colloquium Designing Moments of Learning: International Forum on Pedagogies for Urban Transformation will bring together specialists from various disciplines to reconceptualise urban planning as a process of collective learning.
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10. & 11. September 2026 | Architekturforum, Zürich.
Wie lässt sich Landschaft in einer Zukunft zunehmender Dynamik und Ungewissheit gestalten? Angesichts steigender hydrologischer Amplituden und klimatischer Herausforderungen geraten etablierte Methoden der planenden Disziplinen an ihre Grenzen.
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Redaktionsteam | Editorial Board
Silvia Converso, Institut für Landschaft und Urbane Studien (LUS), Landschaftsarchitektur
Claudia Gebert, Koordinationsstelle NSL, Chefredaktion
Viera Klasovitá, Institut für Verkehrsplanung und Transportsysteme (IVT)
Klearjos Papanicolaou, Institut für Landschaft und Urbane Studien (LUS), Städtebau
Maarten Van Strien, Institut für Raum- und Landschaftsentwicklung (IRL)
Hannah Widmer, Institut für Landschaft und Urbane Studien (LUS), Städtebau
