ETH Week 2022: Urban Futures

ETH Week 2022: Urban Futures - on a quest to shape the city of tomorrow

The topic in 2022 was the future of cities. How can we make the cities of tomorrow more liveable, but at the same time also more sustainable and resilient? How should we deal with issues assosicated with the rapid urbanisation of Swiss cities, such as denisfication? These are some of the questions that were tackled by 130 students and a variety of highly inspriring & diverse experts. Delve into some impressions from the week below.

Sunday and Monday

On Sunday, the opening ceremony included a word of welcome by rector Prof. Dr. Günther Dissertori and a (digital) greeting by Corine Mauch, the mayor of Zurich. The wallet exercise provided an engaging introduction to design thinking. The wallet exercise provided an engaging introduction to design thinking. The teams met each other and their coaches... ... who had prepared some fun team building exercises. The leading futurist Gerd Leonhard took the stage on Inspirational Night. Leonhard argued that "the good future" is entirely possible. Knowledge and technological capabilities to solve major issues, including urbanisation and climate change, are sufficient. The issues, according to him, are on societal and policy levels. On Monday, students ventured on ten different field trips. Pictured here is a group at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI). Critical Thinking Night saw Swiss artist and filmmaker Thomas Haemmerli give an engaging, thought-provoking, and critical talk on densification and urbanisation. According to Haemmerli, the fear of densification in Switzerland is misguided. His mantra "build, build, build!" became clear during the presentation, which contained several funny and entertaining video clips from his documentaries.

“Urbanisation is a great example of an interdisciplinary challenge, as it strongly affects society, the economy, and the environment. I hope that, after ETH Week, you will look at Zürich in a different way and question aspects that you have previously regarded as an inevitable element of a modern city.”
Prof. Dr. Günther Dissertori, Rector ETH Zürich

Tuesday - Thursday

Tuesday's Knowledge Fair connected our students with more than 60 experts. These included researchers, professors, policy makers, as well as representatives from the public and private sectors. Thanks to the interesting discussions and great weather, it was good vibes only at the networking apéro. The community night on Wednesday evening saw an impromptu concert! After all the input from the first four days... ... Thursday was all about finalising the problem statement. And prototyping, as well as testing, the proposed solutions.

“It was great to see that there are so many smart brains working on our urban future. That is something that gives me hope and encourages me to keep on going, despite all the crises that the world is currently facing.”
Nadine, ETH Week participant

Friday

On Friday afternoon, the rector issued some closing remarks before the final presentations. The jury was impressed with the creativity and sophistication of the proposed solutions. Team 1 proposed an origami roof strucuture. Little did they know then that... ... they would receive the "Peer-to-Peer" award for this idea later in the afternoon. A big thank you to everyone who was part of ETH Week 2022 and made the programme possible!