Angaben zur Professur

Lehrstuhl 

Professur D. Mesa Molina

Typ 

Professur für Architektur und Konstruktion

Standort 

HIL

Webseite 

www.mesa-molina.arch.ethz.ch

Assistierende 

Alicja Prusińska, Fabian Tobias Reiner, Lida Freudenreich, Luca Mostarda, Ludwig Albert, Marcela Lino, Mingyue Zhang, Victoria Collar Ocampo

Kontakt E-Mail 

bachelor.mesa@arch.ethz.ch

Angaben zur Entwurfsklasse

Typ 

Entwurf III+IV

Thema 

Ready-Unmade: HIL

Beschreibung
des Entwurfs-programmes 

What does it mean to inhabit the Earth today? How can architecture respond to the urgency of building more with less—less material, less energy, less space—while offering more meaning, more connection, and more possibility? This studio invites students to explore the essence of architecture through a hands-on, iterative processes of design grounded in experimentation and critical reflection. Partnering with the Living LAB initiative (1), an in-house interdisciplinary research project, we invite students to engage with a building that is part of our daily lives at the university—the HIL building—and to imagine its future with creativity and sensibility. This is an opportunity to productively contribute to a school-wide effort, unlocking the latent potential of HIL and its context, transforming it into a testing ground for ideas, interventions, and new ways of constructing and inhabiting our shared environment. Over the course of two semesters -HS Laboratory and FS Field-, students will engage experimentally with HIL, observing, deconstructing, and reworking its components to uncover hidden spatial, material, and programmatic logics. In envisioning possible futures for the building, they will collectively rethink it as a more vibrant, adaptable, and inclusive academic environment. During the fall semester, the studio will operate as a prototyping laboratory, where design and construction collaborate, improvisation and hands-on investigations fuel imagination, and different skills are trained through guided exercises that gradually introduce methods, tools, and concepts. The Studio will have The Workshop (2) as its heart—a collaborative, hands-on makespace that we will develop together, where experimentation, craft, and critical reflection converge to transform ideas into tangible architectural interventions. (1) ETH Zurich is launching a pioneering research project with practical relevance to our discipline: The HIL building on the Hönggerberg campus will be transformed into a Living Lab. The building, which is in need of renovation, is to be converted and expanded by approximately 2033. Over the next few years, chairs at the Departments of Architecture (D-ARCH) and Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering (D-BAUG) are encouraged to research interventions and constructions directly within the building to advance sustainable design and construction in existing buildings and demonstrate these in a concrete construction project. (source: Living Lab HIL) (2) The Workshop is a prototyping space and initiative launched by the Chairs of professors Comte/Meuwly and Débora Mesa Molina. It is meant to expand construction knowledge and design skills, and serve as a model space for the Living Lab to identify future needs and point towards new ways of teaching. HS Laboratory Block 01: Table Improvisation as an attitude and working methodology Connecting our hearts with our hands is a pivoting act for the creative mind. The gesture of initiating a design action intuitively and through making, consciously or subconsciously, opens the possibility to discovery beyond what we know and control. Working in small groups, students will engage in a hands-on exercise to build their own studio space, starting with their tables. The focus will be on materiality, structure, performance and maintenance. Intuitive making will be enacted giving new meaning to found materials, questioning conventions and learning through trial and error. Block 02: Catalogue Building knowledge through material investigation To design meaningfully, architects need to understand how buildings are made. This means engaging with materials, systems, and processes. Working individually as part of a collective effort, students will observe, catalogue, and interpret the parts that make up the HIL building. Through research into material narratives—from finished products back to their natural origins—each student will focus on a different constructive element, investigating its qualities and exploiting its potential beyond known applications. Together, these will form a Catalogue, serving as a foundation for designing and rethinking HIL building elements. Block 03: Constructs Assembling parts and people Too often, buildings are conceived as fixed and finished objects, detached from the cycles of material life, human activity, and ecological processes. Yet, when architecture is understood as something alive, it begins to bridge the gap between material sources and buildings, nature and people. In groups, students will use the shared Catalogue as the source for their design projects, to develop architectural proposals and construction systems, as prototypes for new models of human-nature-technology relationships.

Thematische und methodische Schwerpunkte 

Entwurf, Konstruktion, Handwerk, Visualisierungen

Lernziele 

Throughout this studio, students will be learn to: - Observe, look at the world with curiosity and openness, questioning conventions. - Balance hands-on, practical experimentation with critical, theoretical reflection to inform holistic and thoughtful design. - Work across scales — from detail to territory. - Explore the material and elemental foundations of architecture, connecting design to natural processes. - Engage nature and industry as collaborators. Integrate time, adaptability, and resilience into architectural thinking and design. - Examine the environmental, social, and cultural impacts of material choices and construction methods. - Understand and critically engage with architectural typologies in relation to contemporary human needs. - Develop collaborative and reflective learning practices through research and knowledge exchange. - Develop strong communication and representation skills, using diverse media to express, explore, and convey architectural ideas effectively.

LV-Nr. des Entwurfs 

052-0545-25

Unterrichts-sprache 

English

Arbeitsweise 

Einzel- und Gruppenarbeit, davon 5 oder mehr Wochen Gruppenarbeit

Daten Zwischenkritiken 

Datum Schlusskritik 

Einführungs-veranstaltung 

16.09.2025 10:00

Zusätzliche Kosten 

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

Verfügbare Plätze 

Nach Bedarf

Plakat des Entwurfs-programmes 

Plakat ansehen (PDF Datei)