Zurich Monuments
Zurich Monuments
Introduction 17 February 2026, 10 am
Gramsci Monument, Thomas Hirschhorn 2013
I try to make a new kind of monument. A precarious monument. A monument for a limited time. I make monuments for philosophers because they have something to say today. Philosophers can give the courage to think, the pleasure to reflect. I like the strong sense in philosophical writings, the questions about human existence and how humans can think. I like full-time thinking.
MONUMENTS, Thomas Hirschhorn 2003
While rooted in the ideas of Deleuze, Spinoza, Bataille and Gramsci, Thomas Hirschhorn’s Monuments are not didactic or elitist. Through an extensive and complex process of ‘fieldwork’ the artist searches out fertile situations and willing accomplices that enable his Monuments to profoundly take root, becoming places of care, exchange and learning. The process of their planning, construction, and activation transforms all who encounter them, most of all the artist himself.
This semester we will use the example of Hirschhorn alongside the similarly rich and engaged practices of Group Material, who were active in the United States between 1979 and 1996, and ruangrupa, who have been working as artists, curators and activists in Indonesia since 2000. We will develop architectures that engage contemporary Zurich and its people, bringing a broad idea of learning into direct contact with people’s everyday lives. On sites already occupied by living and working we will design small and precise new buildings that add to and disrupt existing spaces and uses. A kind of schoolhouse, that despite its small scale and a certain precarity, through its formal precision and ability to connect and communicate, has the quality of being a new kind of monument in the city.
The semester will be arranged as a clear and continuous process where research is seamless with design, where individual work runs parallel to group work, where the urban is considered alongside the full scale. Our journey will be accompanied by friends and guests who will become part of the journey. We hope you will join us.
Construction and writing as integrated disciplines are included in this course.
Introduction: 17 February 2026, 10:00 am, ONA E30
FS 2026, ETH Zürich, Studio Caruso
Emilie Appercé, Lucia Bernini, Tibor Bielicky, Adam Caruso, Florian Kilian Jaritz
Magic Numbers
Seminar Week: March 15–19, 2026
Dominican House, Simone and Lucien Kroll 1975
Proportions, systems, and numbers have long been used in architecture to embody ideas and to invoke spirits and gods. In the 20th, nowhere has this connection between numbers and meaning been so strong as in the Low Countries, where mysticism, modernism and structuralism were deployed to embody ideas of efficiency, performance, social and spiritual emancipation. We will go on a quest through the Netherlands and Belgium in search of the magic numbers. We will visit a monastery by Hans van der Laan, an orphanage by Aldo van Eyck, an insurance headquarters by Herman Hertzberger and
participatory housing by Simone and Lucien Kroll. As well as experiencing these landmarks of 20th century architecture we will also meet contemporary practitioners to see what the legacy of these ideas are today.
The costs are 501–750 CHF, including accommodation,local transportation by car, two dinners, entrances and the reader.
Category C, 16 students
FS 2026, ETH Zürich, Studio Caruso
Emilie Appercé, Lucia Bernini, Tibor Bielicky, Adam Caruso, Florian Kilian Jaritz
The Pleasure in Small Things
Final Discussions & Exhibition
December 16, 2025
Tuesday, December 16th, Exhibition & Discussions, ETH Zürich, ONA E30, 08:00 – 19:00
Guests: Monster Chetwynd, Pierre Chèvremont, Tuukka Laurila, Nora Walter
Restaging – Reimagining: Exhibition and Discussions
October 15, 2025
Group A
Wednesday, October 15th, Exhibition & Discussions, ETH Zürich, ONA E30, 10:00 – 17:00
Diploma FS 2026
Architecture School
Dance Deck, Kentfield California, Anna Halprin 1954
The FAU (1969) designed by Vilanova Artigas was an expression of the radical Paulista architecture school of the 1960s, and Gund Hall (1972) designed by John Andrews had similar grand ambitions. The HIL building tells a very different story, accidentally becoming the department of architecture when the ETH administration decided it was best to remove architecture students from the city centre where they had become too involved in the youth protests of the 1970s. The ugly brown building has never been much of an expression of our school’s desires.
This semester we will use the diploma project to explore how the HIL building can be re-structured to be a base for the department, and a more hospitable and sustainable place to meet and work. Since it is unlikely that the present labyrinth could be improved by enlargement, our efforts will be to concentrate the existing, making it lighter, clearer and more flexible.
We will also study examples of more dispersed and non-institutional learning, like Anna Halprin’s Dance Deck and Thomas Hirschhorn’s Gramsci Monument, places that demonstrate how learning can be more flexible and responsive to both its students and to ever changing educational contexts. We will combine the idea of a central base with mutable cells, spaces in and around the city that can more closely engage with the diverse people and situations of Zurich and beyond. By working both with the centre and the non-centre, perhaps we can start to imagine an architecture school fit for the 21st century.
We will continue to collaborate with Newrope in three ‘rooms of entanglement’, workshops where content, process and place are considered in an expanded forum.
Preparation phase:
-study of alternative places of education and the preparation of journals that compile the sites, programmes and central qualities of these open and more flexible schools.
-preparation of glossaries of learning.
-preparation of atlas of the HIL building and of possible non-central sites for the future department of architecture.
Elaboration phase:
-development of specific design proposals that incorporate new programmes and ideas of learning for the new department of architecture.
Diploma, FS 2026, ETH Zürich
Chair Caruso
Emilie Appercé, Tibor Bielicky, Adam Caruso
Newrope
Ellena Ehrl, Freek Persyn
Lecture MCBA Lausanne
What is it worth?
October 1, 2025, 18:30
Lycée Hôtelier de Lille, Caruso St John Architects 2011–2016
Adam Caruso
Lecture for the Conférence Espaces communs
Musée Cantonale des Beaux-Arts Lausanne, Auditorium
More information & registration
The Village
Diploma FS 2025
Diesbach was once a village that was home to generations of people from all walks of life. Following the relocation and closure of the textile factories in the Linth valley, demographic decline ensued, leaving vacant buildings behind after the workers had left.
Other factors also contributed to the decline in Diesbach's social life. The village shop, which used to be a place for villagers to share, had to close because it was no longer profitable. The village Gasthaus, which had a small bar-restaurant, also closed, leaving the villagers without a meeting place close to home.
This lack of meeting places quickly became apparent during our site visits, and was confirmed by the villagers we met.
But how can Diesbach be revitalised?
Thanks to our regenerative farm project in Diesbach, a new economic activity is emerging in the village. This farm of more than 100 hectares involves more than forty farmers and supplies a wide variety of local produce.
The former village shop building has been converted into a kitchen, restaurant and grocery shop. Products from our regenerative farm, as well as products from the Legler areal start-ups, are sold on site in a self-service shop, the pantry of the inhabitants of Diesbach.
These products are also prepared in the kitchen to create dishes available in three different ways. They are sold directly in the grocery shop for takeaway, they are also available by delivery for the village's elderly, and it is also possible to eat them on site in the Diesbach canteen, a place that brings together villagers, seasonal workers and new workers from the village. All generations from different working backgrounds come together in this place of sharing, which had disappeared and was so much appreciated by the villagers.
On the ground floor is the village's kitchen and pantry, which benefits both. The cooks use the pantry to prepare meals and also restock the shelves with takeaway food.
The first floor is accessible via a staircase that opens onto the public space to access the restaurant area. The staircase leads past a greenhouse, a reminder that the produce comes directly from the village and a foretaste of what's on the plates.
This greenhouse was once a garage that has now been transformed into a place for growing plants. The wooden structure of the existing garage is duplicated on either side of the building, like an extrusion of its original volume. The opaque cladding of the existing building is retained, while the two extensions to the building have a transparent polycarbonate cladding, to heat the space using the sun's rays.
A workshop and plants requiring little light are placed in the centre of the building, while those requiring more sunlight are located in the two extensions.
The Gasthaus, which faces the grocery shop and restaurant building, is home to seasonal workers in both summer and winter. During the warmer months, some of the civil servants are housed in this former gasthaus, which has been converted into a large WG. During the cold season, some of the seasonal workers from the Braunwald ski resort, 20 minutes away by public transport, can be accommodated in this WG when the fields no longer require as many workers.
The building mainly requires interior work, as its facades are iconic in this village and must not be altered.
A variety of rooms have been designed to meet different needs.
Rooms have been created on the first two floors, where the Gasthaus' communal areas used to be. On the second floor, bathrooms have been added to the existing rooms to add quality to what already existed. And under the magnificent wooden roof structure is the new common area of this large WG.
In this way, a place that had been neglected over the years has been reborn in a new light, with the arrival of a younger generation in the village, while at the same time responding to the wishes of the inhabitants who no longer felt considered following the unification of all the villages in the valley into one large municipality, Glarus Sud.
Remoteness and Identity
Diploma HS 2024
Switzerland at a Crossroads
Monica Ciobotar
HS 2024 Switzerland at a Crossroads
IEA Lecture
All buildings are beautiful
October 9, 2024, 18:00
Adam Caruso
IEA Lecture Series HS 24
Practice What We Teach?
ETH Zürich, ONA, Fokushalle
A New Museum
Diploma FS 2024
Ennenda is a place with a rich history that continues to shape its identity today. The intensive textile industry has left an indelible mark, contributing significantly to Ennenda's character. The architecture and facades of Ennenda stand as testament to that era, embodying both industrial prowess and wealth.
A notable historical landmark is the hanging tower on the Trümpi site. Despite being a reconstructed version of the original, this building still defines Ennenda's landscape, evoking memories of fluttering cloths from a bygone era.
The museum encapsulates this very essence of Ennenda, represented through its facades, placing them in the context of both historical and contemporary narratives. Just as vibrant prints from around the world were once replicated for textile printing, the exhibition mirrors these facades, faithfully reproducing selected elements.
These replicated facades serve as backdrops, layered with stories from the past and present. The building already hosts various functions, and the exhibition further enlivens the area by doubling as a part-time theater where these stories come to life. It creates moments where diverse people and perspectives converge, casting familiar scenes in a new light.
The set pieces are a blend of timber frames and three-dimensional textile facades.
As a ghostly presence, these facades shift between being a backdrop for dynamic projections and standing as delicate shadows that evoke the essence of Ennenda’s past. They create an ethereal atmosphere, showing the layers of history and capture the ephemeral nature of memory, reflecting how the town's history continues to influence its present.
Redesigning Museums
Diploma HS 2023
Re (Reframe, Rearrange, Repeat)
Beverly Buchanan
Diploma FS 2023
The aim of the KW Walzmühle project is to restore the existing buil- dings of the Alpenbrückli complex and introduce new infras- tructures in order to re-activate the site and its reach onto the surrounding area and its population. The implementation of a bold communal hall linking the former grain silo and the old mill is meant to generate an intermediate space that could be used by the new users of the complex as well as the daily passers-by from the region. The site is in close proximity to the centre of Glarus as well as the train tracks and stands on a pedestrian path that sees a daily flux of users crossing the old mill factory thus making it a place with a high potential for social & commercial gatherings as well as a distribution node for locally produced goods.
The new site would offer a new commercial hub for the city of Glarus, allowing local producers & suppliers to gather in a centralised environment where each could benefit from the experience and networks of each other. The goal is to introduce a variety of co- working spaces, showrooms as well as storage facilities that could enable national and international investors and distributors to come and meet in person with a broader range of small to me- dium-scale producers in order to facilitate the export of locally produced goods across the rest of the country as well as beyond our borders. The importance of the local economy and locally sourced productions is becoming a critical part of fair trade poli- cies as well as the development of suburban regions that develop products further away from economic centres such as Zurich.
Diverse state entities and private companies have already taken the challenge to boost the economy of smaller companies and expand the reach of new start-ups and producers outwards of the valley in order to bring the region to a more competitive state in opposition to the country‘s leading food distributors like Coop and Migros. These mega companies control the majority of Switzerland‘s food market and thus possess an essential influen- ce on the prices and distribution networks of goods across the country making it very difficult for smaller companies to maintain a sustainable business and push their products onto the Swiss market on their own.
Reframe, Rearrange, Repeat
Diploma HS 2022
The building of the Grenzsanität, designed by Heidi and Peter Wenger, is located at the train station in Brig. It was built in 1957 for the purpose of sanitary examinations of migrant workers passing the Swiss-Italian border. These examinations consisted of screenings for infectious diseases such as Tuberculosis by means of blood collection and radiologic exams. They were mandatory for people immigrating into Switzerland in order to obtain a work and residence permit.
The Grenzsanität is the architectural representation of the restrictive immigration policies established in the post-war years. Terms such as Saisonnierstatut, Überfremdung, Schwarzenbach-Initiative, or Grenzsanitätsdienst did not only shape the discourse about migration in those years, but affected the lives of thousands of people and families. The Grenzsanität is a Denkmal by means of which their story can be told.
Re form
Julie Bovier / Marine Lachat
FS 2022 Re form
Kirche auf der Egg
IEA Lecture
You cannot take risks without failing
March 15, 2022, 18:00
Adam Caruso
IEA Lecture Series FS 22
One Building, Failure Is an Option
ETH Zürich, ONA, Fokushalle
Interim, forever
Caspar Bultmann / Jeremy Waterfield
HS 2021 Interim, forever
Zitrone Dietikon
Diploma HS 2021
In unmittelbarer Umgebung des Hotels Marriott entwichkeln sich in den 70er, 80er und 90er Jahren um und auf dem Platzspitz verschiedene Szenen. Züri brännt 1980. Das Marriott ist Teil des gescheiterten Infrastrukturprojekts Ypsilon und dem Milchbucktunnel. Welten treffen hier aufeinander, voneinander entkoppelt. Die Strategie des temporären Besetzens und Nutzens von Freiräumen in der Stadt wurde in der Jugendbewegung der 80er Jahren oft genutzt. Mit leichten Interventionen wird an unbeachteten Orten Unerwartetes geschaffen. Sie spielen sich in unterschiedlichen zeitlichen und räumlichen Grössenordnungen ab.
Women Writing Architecture
Website Launch
June 30, 2021
The website womenwritingarchitecture.org was launched this week on June 30th. The new resource, an annotated bibliography of writing by women about architecture, is now publicly accessible to discover, browse and contribute to.
Making Plans for Living Together
Dancing together apart re-evaluates the accessibility to food in cities, including the socio-cultural aspect around food rituals and spaces in communities. A proposition in three acts articulates different scales on the site of Engrosmarkt, from events to architectural interventions, as an ongoing research challenging the publicness of the industrial site.
The interventions gradually disrupt, alter, and modify some existing part of the site while using and misusing what is already built. The six physical infiltrations simultaneously happen with the emergence of a community life next to the sellers and truck drivers. Programs implicating each point of the city food chain arise alongside the market. Engrosmarkt becomes a laboratory working together but still apart with the existing flows.
Nicolas Schwegler / Severin Ziegler
FS 2021 Making Plans for Living Together, Zürich
Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque
Making Plans for Living
Soziale Fassaden, Isa Genzken
Re-Use Ciba
With the world climate changing, resources getting scarce and humans exploiting nature, we need to rethink farming and how to change our behavior towards nature. We're not the only ones.
By using the existing storage building as a foundation, the project becomes a self sufficient machine, powered by solar energy. With the aquaponic system it is possible to harvest more and use less.
The big heart of the machine connects the lower existing part with the upper new housings - a cohabitational space offering a habitat for plants, animals and humans. Everything is connected, everything is necessary and plays a role in the whole.
Discover this cosmos of cohabitation and find yourself in richness and diversity. A symbiosis of plants, animals, humans, architecture and technology.
What is it worth?
Download Book
Welche Heimat?
Tobias Wagner
HS 2019 Welche Heimat?
Society and the Image
Tanguy Caversaccio / Arnaud Pasche
HS 2019 Society and the Image, Zürich
Download Booklet
PDF 185 MB
Public Building
Ling Xu / Kunqi Hou
FS 2019 Public Building, Zürich
Recueil et parallèle, Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand
Paris, 1799
Hidden Interiors
Zhe Dong / Weilan Jiang
HS 2018 Hidden Interiors, Zürich
Bürgerliche Wohnstube, Verlag Schneider Esslingen
1840
The Ideal City
Elif Erez / Victor Stolbovoy
FS 2018 The Ideal City, Spreitenbach
Structuralism, Candilis Josic Woods
Römerberg Frankfurt, 1963
Describing Beauty
Juliette Martin
HS 2017 Describing Beauty, Zürich
Egyptian Sculpture
Structure and Society
Nina Stauffer / Joël Schärer
FS 2017 Structure and Society, Zürich
Hyatt Regency, John Portman
San Francisco, 1973
Social Structure
Allegra Stucki / Lenz Schnell
HS 2016 Social Structure, Graubünden
Agriculture & Industry
Graubünden
