Angaben zur Professur

Lehrstuhl 

Professur F. Cifuentes Utrero

Typ 

Professor für Architektur und Ressourcen

Standort 

HIL

Webseite 

www.cifuentes.arch.ethz.ch

Assistierende 

Gwendoline Eveillard, Laura Garcia Blanco, Guillem Hernandez Camarasa, Francesca Leibowitz, Luis Sarabia Sanz, Paula Schilliger

Kontakt E-Mail 

camarasa@arch.ethz.ch

Angaben zur Entwurfsklasse

Typ 

Entwurf V-IX

Thema 

RIOM

Beschreibung
des Entwurfs-programmes 

Architecture is not produced in isolation. It emerges from the long-term interaction between territory, material availability, construction cultures, and socio-economic change. In alpine regions, these relationships become particularly legible: resources are limited, landscapes are fragile, and architectural decisions tend to have lasting territorial consequences. This design studio focuses on Riom and the Surses valley in Graubünden as a first case study to investigate the relationship between architecture and resources. In this alpine context, the effects of the climate emergency are already reshaping the valley’s main source of income, winter tourism. Diminishing snowfall, changing precipitation patterns, and increasing environmental instability reveal how climatic change affects not only ecosystems, but also everyday life and the socio-economic reality of the territory. The semester explores how timber, stone, earth, straw, existing buildings, and materials emerging from climatic processes such as landslides constitute both a material archive and a potential resource. These renewable or locally available materials have shaped vernacular architectures and continue to influence contemporary practices. Students are invited to read architecture as a record of care, extraction, abandonment, and reuse embedded in the landscape. Rather than treating territory as a neutral backdrop, the course positions it as an active condition that both enables and constrains architectural action.

Thematische und methodische Schwerpunkte 

Entwurf, Konstruktion, Landschaftsarchitektur, Handwerk, Visualisierungen, Recherche

Lernziele 

Students will work in groups on site-specific architectural projects in Riom, developing proposals grounded in territorial conditions, available resources, and constructive logic. The studio places strong emphasis on material thinking, making, and technique, combining analytical work with hands-on experimentation and design development. Rather than treating architectural projects as isolated objects, the course frames architecture as a situated practice shaped by territorial, ecological, and economic conditions. Working with a real client and local industry partners, students will gain insight into how architectural decisions relate to value chains, labour, and regional economies, and how these conditions set real limits for design. Two field trips to different valleys in Graubünden structure the first part of the semester: the Surses valley, where Riom is located, and the Valser and Lumnezia valleys, including Vals and Vrin. These visits enable an immersive reading of distinct territorial conditions and support the production of a shared atlas. The atlas developed through territorial observation and fieldwork will inform material choices and design strategies in the subsequent phases of the course, leading to architectural proposals that are clear in construction, coherent in their relationship between material and form, and legible across territorial, spatial, and technical scales.

LV-Nr. des Entwurfs 

052-1184-26

Unterrichts-sprache 

English

Arbeitsweise 

Group work only

Daten Zwischenkritiken 

04.03.26, 21.04.26

Datum Schlusskritik 

26.05.26

Einführungs-veranstaltung 

17.02.26, 9:30h, Surses

Zusätzliche Kosten 

CHF 100 (Schätzung, ohne allfällige Kosten für Modellbau und Seminarwoche)

Verfügbare Plätze 

42

Plakat des Entwurfs-programmes 

Plakat ansehen (PDF Datei)