In this issue, Living Landscapes explores spaces in motion, from the Maasai Savannah as a relational landscape where livestock and wildlife coexist, to design approaches that engage not only space but also time in response to hydrological and geomorphological change. It also asks how we can sense and understand the uneven territories of planetary urbanization, while historical studies of resourceful cities and scenario workshops on climate adaptation show how urban environments are shaped by resources, planning, and social inequalities. Together, these contributions highlight landscapes as dynamic, interconnected, and deeply political – across savannahs, cities, and neighbourhoods alike. In addition, you now have the chance of getting to know our new professor for Landscape Architecture, Aisling O’Carroll. Wishing you a stimulating read!
The Maasai Savannah is a Relational Space
Often, when we speak about the savanna there is always a presupposition that we are talking about the wild. Standing in the outskirts of the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya on community lands, and looking out towards the reserve, what was remarkable was the mix of livestock and herbivores grazing together. Was this the image of the preserved wild?
Entwerfen mit und für Dynamiken
Landschaft ist nie still. Selbst dort, wo sie fest erscheint, arbeitet die Zeit an ihr weiter. Wasser, Sedimente, Vegetation und topografische Prozesse wandeln sich fortwährend. Angesichts zunehmender hydrologischer und geomorphologischer Dynamiken stellt sich für die Landschaftsarchitektur die Frage, wie sich nicht nur Raum, sondern auch Zeit entwerfen lässt.
Cinema and the City in the Age of Planetary Urbanization
If planetary urbanization has reoriented urban research beyond the city, a key question remains: how are these uneven and often inaccessible territories to be sensed, documented, and understood? We suggest that the answer lies in a co-constitutive engagement between urban theory and sensory registers of film and other media-based practices.
Resourceful Cities
A series of Research Studios at the Chair of the History and Theory of Urban Design investigates the role of resources in the history of urban design. How are resources relied upon, managed, and produced by cities? How can historical experiences inform the challenges of today? How do we relate to our planet in a resourceful way?
Szenario-Workshops: Innovative Methode für Problemanalyse, Austausch und Zukunftsszenarien
Im Rahmen des EU-Horizon-Projekts ReHousIn untersucht das ETH Wohnforum den Zusammenhang zwischen Klimaanpassungsstrategien und Wohnungsungleichheiten in der Schweiz. Im Fokus stehen Massnahmen zur Verdichtung, Begrünung sowie energetische Sanierungen. Wir analysieren, wie solche Strategien zur Aufwertung von Quartieren beitragen und dadurch Mietsteigerungen sowie Verdrängungsprozesse beeinflussen können.
“The Alps provide a valuable lens through which to examine how societies understand, manage, and adapt to environmental change.”
In her new role at ETH Zurich, Aisling O’Carroll brings a historical lens to one of landscape architecture’s most urgent questions: how do we design for a changing climate by learning from the past? In this interview, she reflects on the value of historical research, the potential of design-based methods in teaching, and the Swiss Alps as a uniquely rich site for understanding landscape change, resilience, and future transformation.
Kurzmeldungen | Short News
“Despite the gentle blanket of snow covering everything, you could still feel the sheer force of what had happened in Blatten”
The rock avalanche of May 2025 didn’t just bury the village of Blatten – within seconds, it also fundamentally transformed the entire landscape. ETH Professor Martina Voser has been working with landscape architecture students to develop different visions for the future of the Lötschental. In this interview, she talks about courage, change and the sense of unease she felt among the rubble. Article in the ETH News
Tom Avermaete receives one of the coveted ERC Advanced Grants
Professor of architecture Tom Avermaete is researching how cities are designed and how they have evolved over time – and what we can learn from this for the urban planning of the future. In his ERC project, he is investigating how cooperatives, housing associations, and other collective institutions jointly plan, build and manage housing, cultural centres and other public facilities. To this end, his team is comparing examples from Sweden, France and Switzerland dating from the period between 1890 and 1990. The project aims to demonstrate the contribution collective initiatives have made to creating liveable cities – and what insights they can offer for current challenges such as affordable housing, social inclusion and sustainable urban development.
Philipp Urech and Susann Ahn win the Tulane Prize for Climate Change Curriculum in the Built Environment, category Landscape Architecture
Making Greenways: A typological transposition between Vienna and Seoul.
ETH Medal for the outstanding doctoral theses at D-ARCH of Sara Frikech
Sara Frikech received an ETH Medal for her doctoral thesis at the Institute gta. It deals with a historical topic in architecture from the mid‑19th century onwards.
Urban Studies Best Article Prize 2025 for Nitin Bathla
The Urban Studies Best Article is awarded by the editors to the author(s) of what they consider to be the most innovative and agenda-setting article published in a given year. The editors are pleased to announce that Nitin Bathla is the winner of the Urban Studies Best Article 2025 for his paper Authoritarian urbanism beyond the city: Infrastructure-led extended urbanisation and India’s more-than-neoliberal configurations.
disP Now Online First
We are excited to share that disP – The Planning Review now offers ONLINE FIRST publication. This means accepted articles will be published online as soon as they are ready—making new research accessible earlier and supporting faster knowledge exchange within the planning community. A great step forward for authors, readers, and everyone committed to advancing planning research. Find the latest first online articles here.
Publikationen
This is a selection. Find a complete list in the ETH Zürich Research Collection.
Hybrid Terrain Modeling: A Multidimensional Landscape Design Method
This paper focuses on how, in the wake of shifting hydro-topographic regimes in Switzerland, digital design methods can be combined with tactile modeling methods to support the overall design process and output. Bridging crucial gaps in the workflow from geodata to physical modeling the paper proposes a design process which iterates between the realms of the digital and the analog.
Treasures from the disP Archives
Series One: Rethinking Cities – Governance, Diversity, and Community.
This special issue from the disP archives provides a foundation for examining how inclusive governance and community-building can address the challenges of difference and inequality in contemporary cities.
More
Towards a Typology of Collaborative Housing in Colombia
Interest in collaborative housing is growing across Latin America. Based on 20 case studies, four distinct types were identified: the Eco-Communitarian, the Developer-led, the Resistance, and the Political, differentiated by the actors and instruments enabling their emergence, sustainability, and scalability over time.
Weiterbildung | Further Education
CAS Zukunft der Raumentwicklung
Bewerbung: 15. April – 15.Juli (laufende Zulassung) | Ausbildungsdaten: 24. August 2026 – 12. Februar 2027.
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Kompaktkurs: Grundlagen der Raumplanung
25. – 27. August 2026 | ETH Zürich, Zentrum, LEE E 101. AUSGEBUCHT
CAS ETH in Regenerative Materials – Structural Specialisation – Next Edition
earth. bio-based. reused
Application until 15.07.2026 for September to December 2026 (Autumn Semester).
Jobs
PhD Position in Infrastructure Intervention Effectiveness Analysis for Road Safety
100%, Zurich, fixed-term.
PhD Position in Vehicle Sensor and Remote Sensing Analysis for Road Safety
100%, Zurich, fixed-term.
Aktuell | Current
This is a selection. Head over to our News-Page for more.
Arquiteturas Film Festival Guest Programme
1 – 5 July 2026 | Film festival | Rua dos Clérigos 44, 4050-204 Porto, Portugal.
Densités écologiques. Quel futur pour le bâti genevois? Ecological densities. Where Next for Geneva’s Built Environment?
Call for Contributions: 5 July 2026 | Seminar: 9-10 December 2026 | Geneva.
Öffentliche Schlusspräsentation Design Studio: Furttal – Prozessdesign
10. Juli 2026, 13:15 Uhr | ETH Zentrum, LEE E 101, Leonhardstrasse 21, 8092 Zürich.
ETH Forum Wohnungsbau 2026: Grün und bezahlbar? Wohnraum zwischen Klimazielen und sozialer Nachhaltigkeit
9. September 2026 | ETH Zürich.
In ganz Europa wächst die Besorgnis über die steigenden Wohnkosten und die zunehmende Kluft zwischen Einkommen und Wohnkosten, insbesondere in städtischen Gebieten. Umwelt- und energiepolitische Massnahmen zur Förderung von energetischen Sanierungen, Verdichtung und naturbasierten Lösungen wurden als Faktoren identifiziert, die zu steigenden Wohnkosten beitragen und damit die Wohnungskrise verschärfen können.
NSL Kolloquium: Dynamic Landscapes | Gestalten mit Unsicherheiten
10. & 11. September 2026 | Architekturforum Zürich, Zollstrasse 115, 8005 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.
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