ENAC news about education

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.

Students want to invite the ocean on EPFL campus

Published:10.03.23 — To build awareness about the importance of oceans, Sailowtech, a student association, has launched a project to develop low-tech methods for collecting data at sea. The methods will be tested during a sailing expedition around the North Atlantic Ocean. Various EPFL labs are also involved.

Sleeping together: Examining dormitories as architectural types

Published:25.01.23 — A recent publication explores the unique history of dormitories from the Middle Ages to present day. Drawing on a corpus spanning everything from submarines to mountain huts, the authors examine the fine balance between the need for privacy and the function of dormitories as collective spaces, and reflect on the implications for contemporary challenges.

5 Master's theses awarded on adaptation to climate change

Published:14.12.22 — The 2022 Durabilis prize list brings together individual works on different ways of dealing with global warming, from a technological point of view on the EPFL side and a cultural point of view on the UNIL side. Summary of their work and comments from the jury.

Urban planning helps mitigate extreme weather effects in Haut-Valais

Published:30.11.22 — Olivier Lalancette, an EPFL Master’s student in architecture, has come up with some development proposals for the Brig-Visp-Naters conurbation. His suggestions, relatively modest in scope, could help these cities better withstand the droughts and heavy rainfall that are expected to intensify by 2050. Lalancette hopes his study will start a conversation about the region’s future.

More soil, less concrete: changing mindsets in construction

Published:29.09.22 — For his Master’s project, architecture student Jeremy Morris assessed the life cycle of building materials in Vaud Canton. His research shows that the construction industry could shrink its carbon footprint by making more regular use of soil. Morris proposes three courses of action, which he will present at the Quinzaine de l’Urbanisme.

rebuiLT, or how to rebuild a house sustainably

Published:16.08.22 — The Low-Tech Lab in Lausanne has been part of the Unipoly association of EPFL since 2021 and aims to popularize the low-tech approach already found in several other European universities. Its showcase project rebuiLT is one of EFPL’s interdisciplinary MAKE projects and seeks to reuse parts of a building being demolished to create a community pavilion in Ecublens.

Preventing heat islands is a priority for the future of our cities

Published:15.08.22 — Summer series – Master’s project (7). Two EPFL Master’s students carried out meticulous research on heat islands, or densely packed urban areas with features that can aggravate high temperatures during heat waves, posing a serious threat to vulnerable residents.

Turning plastic waste into building bricks

Published:25.07.22 — Summer series – Master's project (4). For her Master’s project in civil engineering, Selina Heiniger took on a challenge that’s aligned with her desire to help preserve the environment. She’s developing a new building material that’s made from plastic waste, concrete and terracotta.

Architecture students rejuvenate two sites in the Greater Geneva area

Published:01.06.22 — First-year EPFL architecture students are reshaping Geneva’s public spaces. All summer long, visitors can explore and interact with temporary installations at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum’s Jardin des Nations and along Avenue des Grandes-Communes in Onex, which has been transformed into a dynamic pedestrian-oriented area.

“I try to turn my classes into interactive discussions”

Published:09.12.21 — Dimitrios Lignos, head of EPFL’s Resilient Steel Structures Laboratory (RESSLab), has been named this year’s best teacher in the civil engineering section. He favors an interaction-based approach to teaching.

Kristin Schirmer is awarded ENAC students' prize

Published:22.10.21 — At the EPFL’s “Magistrale” graduation ceremony this year, Kristin Schirmer was recognised for her teaching work at the institution. In this interview she explains what this work means to her.

How can we make our housing less heteronormative?

Published:20.10.21 — An EPFL architecture student’s radical new approach to the layout of typical city-center buildings in Lausanne, and how we inhabit the spaces we live in, may just revolutionize our ways of thinking.

Helping engineers better predict clay landslides

Published:24.08.21 — Norway experiences dangerous landslides due to its clay-rich soil. For her Master’s thesis in civil engineering at EPFL, Mathilde Metral outlined steps that the country’s geotechnical engineers can take to improve the predictive computer model they’re currently developing. 

3D modelling of the Flon river helps engineers plan a new metro line

Published:13.08.21 — Lausanne will soon be getting a new metro line, the m3, but question marks remain over the best way to build the tunnel at the Flon station – already one of the busiest metro stations in French-speaking Switzerland. Leona Repnik, who just graduated from EPFL with an environmental engineering degree, studied this problematic for her Master’s thesis and put forth a feasible solution to this complex problem.

EPFL architecture students explore outdoor spaces in Geneva Canton

Published:07.06.21 — Throughout the summer, architectural works by first-year students at EPFL’s ALICE studio will be on display at four sites in Geneva Canton: Genthod, Aigues-Vertes, Vernier and Onex. Visitors will be able to view the students’ work through a series of events, all in compliance with public health and safety measures.

ENAC Week: students meet in the field

Published:21.05.21 — Bachelor's students in architecture, civil and environmental engineering met for a week to work on interdisciplinary projects during the ENAC Week.

Geneva and Casablanca: two approaches to globalized urban development

Published:29.10.20 — For his PhD thesis at EPFL, Kamil Hajji compared urban development projects in two major cities – each a business and financial hub, but in countries with very different societies and political systems. He found that democracy can significantly influence how globalization plays out at the local level.

Modeling avalanche protection in forests

Published:19.08.20 — Two EPFL students have compared the ability of a forest in Vaud Canton to protect against avalanches before and after it was ravaged by fire in 2018. Their method could be applied to other forested slopes, helping to enhance local reforestation strategies.

EPFL architecture students publish their designs in print

Published:02.07.20 — EPFL’s first-year architecture students usually have the chance to build full-scale versions of their designs. But this year’s cohort will instead publish a book featuring blueprints for structures along the banks of the Rhône and Arve rivers in Geneva