Angaben zur Professur

Lehrstuhl 

Professur T. Emerson

Typ 

Professur für Architektur und Entwurf

Standort 

HIL

Webseite 

www.emerson.arch.ethz.ch

Assistierende 

Martin Aeschbacher, Lucio Crignola, Lorenza Donati, Sonja Flury, Michelle Geilinger, Julius Henkel

Kontakt E-Mail 

flury@arch.ethz.ch

Angaben zur Entwurfsklasse

Typ 

Entwurf V-IX

Thema 

The Understory

Beschreibung
des Entwurfs-programmes 

This semester, we shall look again at building systems. Buildings from the 1970s, 80s and 90s are reaching the end of their first life-cycle and are most vulnerable to being replaced without the confidence and authority of age. Imagine buildings could speak. What might they say? In fact some believe they already do which is why we have invented haunted houses and heritage. But that distinguished status is largely reserved for ancient structures whose design, class, materials and craftmanship, patina and resilience naturally collects and communicates the story of our culture. Modern architecture of the post-war era struggles to be heard in comparison. Is that because industrial construction systems have silenced architecture to a series of abstract signs from nowhere and anywhere? Is it because the reflective surfaces of glass and metals reflect only images but leave no traces? Or is it simply because we are not literate in these architectures of our recent past? This semester, we shall look again at the lightweight aluminium assemblies that defined much of the architecture starting in the 1970s when aluminium production hugely increased for all areas of production from drink cans to aviation and of course façade systems. By looking at a series of buildings from that time in Zürich, and more specifically the aluminium assemblies that make up their façades. We shall examine how these architectures can be rethought for the next generation without erasing the traces of previous events to accommodate a changing society and climate. Starting from a single façade component, we shall design the next.

Thematische und methodische Schwerpunkte 

Entwurf, Konstruktion, Landschaftsarchitektur, Handwerk

Lernziele 

Our method will follow two parallel tracks; making and writing. Making will engage with the specific material reality of these architectures, the processes that form the aluminium from extracted bauxite to 26 ton aluminium bars that get rolled and extruded to create building components, while writing (and reading) will document and imagine the lives of those who make, use and maintain the architecture of everyday life. Architectural concepts will be replaced by narratives that stretch from the past into the future, that recognise contingency and the interconnectedness of our lives in the natural world. So we will start in the garden by restructuring the understory before turning to construction.

LV-Nr. des Entwurfs 

052-1115-25

Unterrichts-sprache 

Englisch

Arbeitsweise 

Nur Gruppenarbeit

Daten Zwischenkritiken 

Datum Schlusskritik 

Einführungs-veranstaltung 

16.09.25, 10am, HIL F 65.1

Zusätzliche Kosten 

CHF 0 (Schätzung, ohne allfällige Kosten für Modellbau und Seminarwoche)

Verfügbare Plätze 

42

Plakat des Entwurfs-programmes 

Plakat ansehen (PDF Datei)