Territorial Project for Social and Ecological Change

MAS ETH EPFL UTD
Territorial Project for Social and Ecological Change

Fall semester at EPFL

Transition Studio
Ongoing research

The joint Master of Advanced Studies at the ETH Zürich and EPFL Lausanne builds an innovative urban and territorial design education addressing social and environmental challenges both within the city-territory and across wider landscapes. As urban and territorial design has acquired a new meaning and urgency scientific research on planetary urbanisation, postcolonial thought, and the Anthropocene are engaged with relation to urban design, landscape architecture, urban and landscape ecology, sustainable construction and low carbon mobility. During the fall semester in Lausanne the core studio reflects on the “Transition” assuming its multiple dimensions (ecological, social and economic) and developing transscalar design operations in concrete territories: in this case the territory of Greater Lausanne – starting from Lausanne Jardins 2024 lakeshore perimeter to the expanded area of the PALM project – serves as the test-bed for radical design explorations of possible futures. Following a thematic approach (water, soil, air, people, waste, plants and animals), different urban conditions are considered in order to understand, read and manage the thick complexity of the contemporary habitat whereby densities, distances, relations and practices shape heterogeneous spaces and ecologies. Conceived as a place of interaction among disciplines, the studio constitutes the main tool in developing relationship across the design spectrum, encouraging a new public discourse and understanding of the territorial issues when facing the « Transition ». In addition to the public Urban and Environmental Theory Sessions provided during the fall semester at EPFL, and among the final results that will be visible on the MAS UTD website, intermediate reviews are part of those precious opportunities to further such a discussion with local stakeholders and members of society at large.

Organized by Habitat Research Center, Paola Viganò, Valentin Bourdon, Mike Fingleton, Loan Laurent, with the participation of Milica Topalović, Nancy Couling, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, Matthias Armengaud, Adriana Rabinovich, Cynthia Martignier, Monique Keller, Antoine Vialle, Luca Rossi, Elena Cogato Lanza, and others (to be confirmed).