Columns

Toward post-carbon neighborhoods?

Published:22.08.23 — In this column, published in three local dailies, Emmanuel Rey, Associate professor of Architecture and Sustainable Construction Technologies and head of the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST), explains what lies behind the concept of "post-carbon neighborhoods".

Why flexible working has the power to change our cities

Published:06.06.23 — In this column, published in three local dailies, Andrew Sonta, engineer and Tenure track assistant professor at the Smart Living Lab explains how evolving patterns of behavior have called into question the value of the physical office space and add an additional layer of complexity to optimal building design and operation.

What can the Avanchet-Parc housing complex teach us today?

Published:09.05.23 — In this column, published in three regional dailies, researcher and architect Giulia Marino discusses how the Avanchet-Parc housing complex near Geneva can inspire future ecodistricts

Temporary structures can help find lasting solutions

Published:25.04.23 — In this column, published in three local dailies, Camille Fauvel explains how temporary structures can help us observe how people use public spaces. Fauvel, a lecturer in architecture at ENAC, cites a project carried out by EPFL students on Lake Geneva.

Will urban sprawl in Switzerland ever end?

Published:23.03.23 — Public policies aimed at curbing urban sprawl have limited effects, says Mathias Lerch in this column. The ENAC researcher cites a study conducted by his laboratory on peri-urbanization in Switzerland since the 1960s.

Industrial heritage: a driver of the socioecological transition

Published:27.12.22 — In this article appearing in Switzerland’s French-speaking press, Anna Karla de Almeida Santos, a PhD candidate at the Laboratory of Urbanism (Lab-U), explains that the transformation of sites with an industrial past represents an opportunity to test research avenues and materialize the socio-ecological transition.

Tapping into the energy stored beneath our cities

Published:22.11.22 — In this article appearing in Switzerland’s French-speaking press, Margaux Peltier, the CEO of Enerdrape and a research assistant at EPFL’s Laboratory of Soil Mechanics, explains how recent technology developed at EPFL can help bring geothermal energy into existing buildings.

Made in the shade

Published:03.11.22 — In this article appearing in Switzerland’s French-speaking press, Jérôme Chenal, the head of EPFL’s Urban and Regional Planning Community (CEAT), gives suggestions for how city planners can adapt their cities to make them more resilient to climate change.

Understanding our existing heritage

Published:25.10.22 — In this article appearing in a local newspapers, Paola Viganò, head of EPFL’s Habitat Research Center, and Valentin Bourdon, its coordinator, highlight why it’s so important to understand past architects’ intentions when adapting heritage buildings to modern contexts.

Local energy solutions help tackle global challenges

Published:21.09.22 — In this article originally appearing in French, Sergi Aguacil, an architect and head of the Building2050 Group at EPFL’s School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), discusses the research he’s doing at the Smart Living Lab in Fribourg to develop distributed power generation and seasonal storage systems for buildings.