Department / Institute : Institut de l’histoire et de la théorie de l’architecture (gta)
Spielraum & Öffentlicher Raum (lecture) | Public Space: The Real and the Ideal (journal presentation)
Listening In: Conversations on Architectures, Cities and Landscapes, 1700-1900 – Programme and Abstracts
Codes and Conventions for Future Zurich: A Propositional Planning Approach to Qualitative Densification
This 4-year project uniquely combines historical and design-led research to explore urban strategies for housing the anticipated 25% population increase that Zurich is facing in the next 20 years. A ‘retroactive analysis’ of the historical evolution of building codes, as well as of the specific urban types and Plus
City of Codes
The city of Zurich is a testament to the incredible power of urban codes and their influence on urban form. From the mid-nineteenth onwards, these codes, such as building laws, norms, standards, or even municipal constitutions, shaped and reshaped the city into what it is today. The research Plus
Symposium ‘Drawing the Urban’
‘Baukultur und Recht’
Symposium of Urban Design History and Theory (SUDHT)
Design Studios as «Communities of Tacit Knowledge»
Much of what architecture students learn in the studio is «tacit knowledge.» They develop the skills and sensibilities of architectural and urban design with practice, often under the supervision of instructors and peers, not by studying textbooks. Yet, despite its importance, we know relatively little about how this Plus
La Norme d’Agadir – Un Urbanisme sur Mesure (Exhibition) & Agadir – Building the Modern Afropolis (Book Launch)
Writing Urban Landscapes of the Anthropocene
History and Theory of Architecture VIII: Seen from the South
Tacit Knowledge in Architecture
Unlocking the ‘Contact Zone’. Towards a New Historiography of Architecture
This research project seeks to develop a new method of writing the history of post-WWII architecture, reflecting the complexities of globalisation and its influence on the built environment. The project investigates an alternative historiographic approach by organising history around cross-cultural ‘contact zones’. This term was first used by Plus
Unlocking a Multidisciplinary Discourse on Architecture and the City
This research project sets out to develop a new methodology of crossing disciplinary perspectives with the goal of unlocking a multidisciplinary historiography of architecture. It is based on the conviction that something fundamentally new can be learned from the exchanges that architects have had with other disciplines.
Agadir. Building the Modern Afropolis
Writing Landscapes, Writing the Urban
Tentacular Writing. A Peer-to-Peer Writing Retreat
11–16 September 2022, public final presentations: 16 September | Tschlin, Graubünden | an ETH Zurich / EPFL Summer School for doctoral students. «It matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with; [it matters] (…) what thoughts think thoughts» (Haraway, 2016).
Repository
www.avermaete.repository.ethz.ch is an open repository for the chair’s education, research, and publication activities. Next to the chair’s Instagram account, the website informs and inspires students and professionals using graphic material and represents each team member. The website also contains a virtual exhibition space on, for example, the student Plus
The City in Theory – Her Agency
This seminar follows the work and life of a series of «female professionals» (architects, politicians, urban designers, journalists, editors, curators, philanthropists, etc.) in the post-war era who started to critically engage in discussions on urban design and actively contribute to the design of cities. By fully acknowledging the contributions Plus
Modern Architect and Migrant in the Australian Tropics
Despite a European training and an early career working with Peter Behrens, a migration from Vienna to the Australian state of Queensland positioned the architect Karl Langer (1903-1969) at the very edge of both European and Australian modernism. Confronted by tropical heat and glare, the economics of affordable Plus
Works and Ideas in Danish Modern Architecture
Kay Fisker (1893-1965) is considered one of the most influential Danish architects of the twentieth century, and yet there has existed until now no in-depth English-language study of his works and writing. Fisker’s output is closely associated with the functional tradition, a hybridization of international modernism and regional architectural Plus
The Modern Architect as Public Intellectual
Architect Ernesto Nathan Rogers (1909-1969) was a towering figure in 20th-century Italian architecture, with a significant impact at the international level. Through the work of his collaborative firm (Banfi Belgiojoso Peressutti Rogers, or BBPR), the editorship of publications such as Domus and Casabella, and his teaching at the Plus
Theme Issue ‘Modernities’, OASE 109. Journal for Architecture
Tête-à-Tête Lectures: Material Commons
The City in Theory: Her Agency
Call for Lost Entries: Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition ARCHIVE
Urban Design in the 20th Century: A History
Conceptualising ‘Cultural Landscape Commons’: Retracing Ecological Thinking from the Swiss Alpine Landscape to Social-Ecological Systems
This paper retraces the fundaments of the ‘nature-culture’ divide within the study of Swiss alpine ‘cultural landscape commons’, showing how this notion was shaped by early ecological thinking expressed through environmental determinism, dynamic systems, and cultural ecology. These fields of research are seen as precursors to some of the Plus
Irrigation Commons: What Lessons for Sustainable Risk Mitigation?
Swiss agricultural commons have overseen the management of pastures, forests, and water in the Alps for centuries. In Canton Valais, the historic irrigation systems have shaped the cultural landscape of the region as a whole. The resilience of these channels rests in part on their ability to mitigate Plus
Call for Lost Entries: The Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition, 1965-2020
Terres communes: quartiers résidentiels et la ville européenne, 1865–1930
L’actuel projet de recherche post-doctorat se concentre sur la relation entre les villes et les quartiers résidentiels urbains, compris comme des ensembles de deux entités ou plus, de densité moyenne à élevée, principalement de bâtiments résidentiels, planifiés en même temps et avec un niveau d’administration commune. Les tout Plus
Expertise architecturale dans un monde en commun
La conception architecturale et urbaine est une activité imbriquée dans un contexte socio-spatial et politique. La professeure de planification urbaine à l’université de Harvard Susan Fainstein met ainsi au défi les théories de planification – et aussi la conception architecturale et urbaine – d’étudier ces relations: comment l’intervention Plus
L’œil de l’architecte voyageur: photographie et vision automobile
Ce projet de recherche examine le statut des photographies prises par les architectes durant leurs voyages en voiture. Il s’appuie sur l’hypothèse selon laquelle la vue depuis la voiture est à l’origine d’une nouvelle épistémologie du paysage urbain et du territoire au sens plus large. Centrée autour des Plus
Construire les biens communs. Une histoire alternative de l’architecture de la ville européenne
Les principes alternatifs de regroupement de ressources communes attirent de plus en plus l’attention des cercles politiques et de la société en général. Qualifiés de «biens communs», certains de ces thèmes ont attiré ces dernières décennies l’attention croissante des universitaires – critique urbaine, géographie urbaine et sciences sociales. Plus
Un monde architectural : le tacite dans la récente pédagogie architecturale à l’ETH Zurich
La dimension tacite de la pédagogie architecturale – déployée par les étudiants en concevant et leur difficulté à l’expliquer – reste inexplorée, cernée par des difficultés méthodologiques. Des témoignages évoquent des projets d’atelier ou des processus cognitifs isolés, négligeant souvent les contextes culturel, historique et disciplinaire. En attendant, Plus
Etude de maquettes urbaines: les projets urbains et la performance de la «maquette», des années 1960 à nos jours
Les maquettes urbaines font l’objet de rares recherches. Dans les actuelles bourses d’étude, elles sont souvent regroupées avec les maquettes d’architecture. Bien qu’elles possèdent certaines caractéristiques communes avec ces dernières, elles s’en distinguent néanmoins. La principale différence avancée par ce projet de recherche réside dans le fait que, Plus
Histories of Urban Design: Global Trajectories and Local Realities
Baukultur und die Stadt
The «Contact Zone» of Agadir’s 1960 Emergency Aid Programme
The reconstruction of the Moroccan city of Agadir in the immediate aftermath of the devastating 1960 earthquake is an exemplary yet much overlooked cross-cultural «contact zone» between local and international rescuers, experts, citizens, organizations, and governments. Studying why the development aid Morocco received was not unconditionally accepted, but Plus
TACK Talks: How to? A Guide Through Knowing
Writing Model Histories
12 May, 10:00–13:00 | Colloquium | online. Invited Lecturers: Professor Dr. Thea Brejzek, School of Archi- tecture, University of Technology, Sydney; Professor Dr. Mari Lending, Oslo School of Architecture and Design; Dr. Matthew Wells, Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta), ETH Zurich.
Writing Automobile Histories
Colloquium: 5 March, 15:00–18:00 | online. Workshop: 5 March, 18:30–20:30 | online. The colloquium aims to untie the specificity of car travel as a new episteme, addressing issues related to the emergence of the new perceptual regimes that emerged thanks to the automobile.
The View from the Car: Autopia as a New Perceptual Regime
L’urbanisme comme pratique transculturelle. Le travail de Michel Ecochard
La biographie de Michel Ecochard (1905–1985) évoque une fascinante saga de migrations entre géographies, cultures et disciplines. Ecochard a suivi une formation en archéologie, architecture et urbanisme, mais également exercé dans toutes ces disciplines au cours de sa carrière. Il a notamment cartographié des monuments historiques en Syrie, Plus
Communautés de connaissance tacite: architecture et ses moyens de connaissance
Les «communautés de connaissance tacite» se concentrent sur la «connaissances tacite» en architecture et en urbanisme. La connaissance tacite est un type spécifique de connaissance utilisée par les architectes lors de la conception; elle est incarnée par les vecteurs matériels avec lesquels ils conçoivent – depuis les traités Plus
Sur la trace du virus: le balcon
Au cours des derniers mois, la liberté de mouvement de nombreuses personnes a été limitée de par le monde. Dans le but de diminuer les effets du virus Covid-19, les personnes ont été incitées à rester chez elle et à limiter strictement leur présence dans l’espace public. Heureusement, Plus
Agadir. Les règles communes et l’Afropolis moderne
Après sa destruction par un tremblement de terre dévastateur en 1960, la ville d’Agadir (Maroc) a conçu un plan moderne et innovant pour sa reconstruction à base de nouvelles typologies et morphologies urbaines. Cette recherche documente et analyse la reconstruction urbaine d’Agadir et estime que ce projet exemplaire Plus
Prof. Dr. Tom Avermaete | Histoire et théorie de l’urbanisme
Tom Avermaete est professeur d’histoire et de théorie de l’urbanisme à l’ETH Zurich depuis 2018. Ses recherches se concentrent sur l’architecture de la ville et les rôles, approches et outils en évolution des architectes et urbanistes selon une perspective transculturelle.
Exploring Urban Scale Models
Urban scale models are crucial for communicating urban design ideas between various stakeholders, from those directly involved in a project – e.g. client, developer, contractor, municipality – to the broader public. However, our knowledge about this tool is limited. Understanding the shifting role of urban design from the Plus