ETH News

Vacant land, community gardens and public parks are key resources for liveable cities. Fritz Kleinschroth calls on urban planners to focus on giving nature more space and on granting equitable access to green spaces.

ETH Zurich researchers taught an autonomous excavator to construct dry stone walls itself using boulders weighing several tonnes and demolition debris.

Günther Vogt is one of the most sought-after landscape architects of our time. He has opened the eyes of an entire generation of architects to public space. After 18 years as an ETH professor, he is now retiring.

Christophe Girot brought landscape architecture into the digital world and taught a generation of architects how to think on a larger scale. After more than 20 years as an ETH Professor, he is now retiring.

The creaking of the shimmering Morteratsch Glacier, the rumbling of ash-coloured dams and the steady sloshing of water in grey-blue Zurich reservoirs... In the “Serendipity” seminar series of Chair of Landscape Architecture Christophe Girot, researchers and students leave the seminar room to explore how places sound and how they can be explored by ear. They do this using no more than a microphone and an analogue camera.

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder – yet how do we find consensus on a shared amenity such as a neighbourhood? We took a stroll with two ETH architects to discover how they see their role as mediators between the conflicting priorities of urban consolidation, functionalism and aesthetics.

With the help of artificial intelligence and four collaborative robots, researchers at ETH Zurich are designing and fabricating a 22.5-metre-tall green architectural sculpture.

A cultural landscape reflects the combined activity of nature and humans. Where has the equilibrium of this union been lost? And how can we restore the balance? 

ETH students should have opportunities to realise their ideas. To meet this need, ETH Zurich is building a new centre for student initiatives and entrepreneurial talent at its Hönggerberg campus. The winner of the architectural competition is the EQUILIBRES project designed by ARGE Buchner Bründler Planer / Rapp Architekten.

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, how do you define a beautiful landscape? Machine learning algorithms can be helpful here, says Adrienne Grêt-Regamey.

From autumn, ETH Zurich will offer a Master’s programme in Landscape Architecture – a first for a Swiss university. The demand for landscape architects is greater than ever, say professors Christoph Girot and Teresa Galí-Izard.