Department / Institute: Prof. Dr. Tom Avermaete
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 Continua
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 Continua
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 Continua
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 Continua
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
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 Continua
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 Continua
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 Continua
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 Continua
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 Continua
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 Continua
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 Continua
Call for Lost Entries: The Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition, 1965-2020
Terreni collettivi: i complessi residenziali e la città europea, 1865–1930
L’attuale progetto di ricerca post-dottorato si concentra sul rapporto tra città e complessi residenziali urbani, intesi come insiemi di due o più edifici prevalentemente residenziali a densità medio-alta, concepiti contemporaneamente e con qualche tipo di amministrazione comune. I primi complessi residenziali furono concepiti come isole di igiene e Continua
Competenza architettonica in un mondo comune
La progettazione architettonica e l’urbanistica sono attività immerse in un contesto socio-spaziale e politico. Susan Fainstein, docente di pianificazione urbana ad Harvard, sfida perciò le teorie della pianificazione – e quindi della progettazione architettonica e dell’urbanistica – ad affrontare queste relazioni: che impatto hanno l’intervento e l’implementazione sul Continua
L’occhio dell’architetto in viaggio: fotografia e osservazione dall’automobile
Questo progetto di ricerca mira a studiare l’importanza delle fotografie scattate dagli architetti durante i viaggi in auto. Si basa sull’ipotesi che l’osservazione dall’auto abbia stabilito una nuova epistemologia del paesaggio urbano e del territorio in generale. Ci concentreremo sugli scatti dall’auto realizzati dagli architetti studiati per capire Continua
Creare beni comuni. Una storia alternativa dell’architettura della città europea
Principi alternativi di condivisione delle risorse comuni stanno attirando sempre maggior interesse negli ambienti politici e nella società in generale. Etichettati come “beni comuni” (commons), negli ultimi decenni alcuni di questi temi sono stati oggetto di una sempre maggiore attenzione accademica negli studi urbani critici, nella geografia urbana Continua
Un mondo architettonico: il tacito nella recente pedagogia dell’architettura presso il Politecnico Federale di Zurigo
La dimensione tacita della pedagogia architettonica – che gli studenti, pur utilizzandola nel progettare, fanno fatica a spiegare – rimane poco studiata, per le difficoltà metodologiche da cui è afflitta. Le opinioni esistenti danno rilievo a esercizi in studio o processi cognitivi isolati, trascurando spesso i contesti culturali, Continua
Esplorazione dei plastici urbanistici: i Projets Urbains e l’uso della “maquette” dagli anni ‘60 ad oggi
Esistono poche ricerche sui plastici urbanistici. Nell’attività accademica attuale vengono spesso accorpati ai modelli architettonici, ma nonostante abbiano senz’altro caratteristiche simili, mostrano anche delle differenze.Questo progetto di ricerca ipotizza che la differenza fondamentale sia che, nei plastici urbanistici, la capacità performativa del modello prevale sulle funzioni semiotiche compositive Continua
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 Continua
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. Prof. Iain Borden, Prof. Jae Continua
The View from the Car: Autopia as a New Perceptual Regime
L’urbanistica come pratica interculturale. L’opera di Michel Écochard
La biografia di Michel Écochard (1905–1985) è un’affascinante saga di migrazioni tra geografie, culture e discipline. Écochard non solo si formò in campo archeologico, architettonico e urbanistico, ma vi praticò anche: durante la sua carriera professionale si occupò della mappatura dei monumenti storici in Siria, della definizione di Continua
Communities of Tacit Knowledge: l’architettura e i suoi modi di conoscere
«Communities of Tacit Knowledge» si concentra sul concetto di «conoscenza tacita» in architettura e urbanistica. La conoscenza tacita è un tipo specifico di conoscenza utilizzata dagli architetti in fase di progettazione e rappresentata dai vettori concreti con cui progettano – da trattati e disegni fino a modelli ed Continua
Tracciamento del virus: il balcone
Negli ultimi mesi, la libertà di movimento di molti cittadini di tutto il mondo ha subito delle limitazioni. Nel tentativo di ridurre la diffusione del virus COVID-19, è stato consigliato alle persone di restare a casa e di ridurre al minimo la propria presenza nello spazio pubblico. Per Continua
Agadir. La comunanza e l’afropoli moderna
Dopo essere stata distrutta da un devastante terremoto nel 1960, la città di Agadir (Marocco) sviluppò un piano di ricostruzione moderno e innovativo basato su nuove tipologie e morfologie urbane. Questa ricerca documenta e analizza la ricostruzione urbana di Agadir, postulando che si possa imparare molto da questo Continua
Prof. Dr. Tom Avermaete | Storia e teoria dell’urbanistica
Tom Avermaete è professore di storia e teoria dell’urbanistica presso il Politecnico Federale di Zurigo dal 2018. La sua ricerca si concentra sull’architettura della città e sull’evoluzione di ruoli, approcci e strumenti di architetti e urbanisti da una prospettiva interculturale.
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 Continua
Co-opolis: The Collective Production of the City
Video now online! As urbanization intensifies all over the world, so do contestations over how city space is produced. Citizens, politicians, urban designers and architects become increasingly aware of the fact that the city can no longer be solely developed as the playing field of private interests or Continua