Zurich Monuments
Zurich Monuments
Introduction 17 February 2026, 10 am
I try to make a new kind of monument. A precarious monument. A monument for a limited time. I make monuments for philosophers because they have something to say today. Philosophers can give the courage to think, the pleasure to reflect. I like the strong sense in philosophical writings, the questions about human existence and how humans can think. I like full-time thinking.
MONUMENTS, Thomas Hirschhorn 2003
While rooted in the ideas of Deleuze, Spinoza, Bataille and Gramsci, Thomas Hirschhorn’s Monuments are not didactic or elitist. Through an extensive and complex process of ‘fieldwork’ the artist searches out fertile situations and willing accomplices that enable his Monuments to profoundly take root, becoming places of care, exchange and learning. The process of their planning, construction, and activation transforms all who encounter them, most of all the artist himself.
This semester we will use the example of Hirschhorn alongside the similarly rich and engaged practices of Group Material, who were active in the United States between 1979 and 1996, and ruangrupa, who have been working as artists, curators and activists in Indonesia since 2000. We will develop architectures that engage contemporary Zurich and its people, bringing a broad idea of learning into direct contact with people’s everyday lives. On sites already occupied by living and working we will design small and precise new buildings that add to and disrupt existing spaces and uses. A kind of schoolhouse, that despite its small scale and a certain precarity, through its formal precision and ability to connect and communicate, has the quality of being a new kind of monument in the city.
The semester will be arranged as a clear and continuous process where research is seamless with design, where individual work runs parallel to group work, where the urban is considered alongside the full scale. Our journey will be accompanied by friends and guests who will become part of the journey. We hope you will join us.
Construction and writing as integrated disciplines are included in this course.
Introduction: 17 February 2026, 10:00 am, ONA E30
FS 2026, ETH Zürich, Studio Caruso
Emilie Appercé, Lucia Bernini, Tibor Bielicky, Adam Caruso, Florian Kilian Jaritz
Magic Numbers
Seminar Week: March 15–19, 2026

Dominican House, Simone and Lucien Kroll 1975
Proportions, systems, and numbers have long been used in architecture to embody ideas and to invoke spirits and gods. In the 20th, nowhere has this connection between numbers and meaning been so strong as in the Low Countries, where mysticism, modernism and structuralism were deployed to embody ideas of efficiency, performance, social and spiritual emancipation. We will go on a quest through the Netherlands and Belgium in search of the magic numbers. We will visit a monastery by Hans van der Laan, an orphanage by Aldo van Eyck, an insurance headquarters by Herman Hertzberger and
participatory housing by Simone and Lucien Kroll. As well as experiencing these landmarks of 20th century architecture we will also meet contemporary practitioners to see what the legacy of these ideas are today.
The costs are 501–750 CHF, including accommodation,local transportation by car, two dinners, entrances and the reader.
Category C, 16 students
FS 2026, ETH Zürich, Studio Caruso
Emilie Appercé, Lucia Bernini, Tibor Bielicky, Adam Caruso, Florian Kilian Jaritz
The Pleasure in Small Things
Final Discussions & Exhibition
December 16, 2025
Tuesday, December 16th, Exhibition & Discussions, ETH Zürich, ONA E30, 08:00 – 19:00
Guests: Monster Chetwynd, Pierre Chèvremont, Tuukka Laurila, Nora Walter
Restaging – Reimagining: Exhibition and Discussions
October 15, 2025
Wednesday, October 15th, Exhibition & Discussions, ETH Zürich, ONA E30, 10:00 – 17:00
Diploma FS 2026
Architecture School
The FAU (1969) designed by Vilanova Artigas was an expression of the radical Paulista architecture school of the 1960s, and Gund Hall (1972) designed by John Andrews had similar grand ambitions. The HIL building tells a very different story, accidentally becoming the department of architecture when the ETH administration decided it was best to remove architecture students from the city centre where they had become too involved in the youth protests of the 1970s. The ugly brown building has never been much of an expression of our school’s desires.
This semester we will use the diploma project to explore how the HIL building can be re-structured to be a base for the department, and a more hospitable and sustainable place to meet and work. Since it is unlikely that the present labyrinth could be improved by enlargement, our efforts will be to concentrate the existing, making it lighter, clearer and more flexible.
We will also study examples of more dispersed and non-institutional learning, like Anna Halprin’s Dance Deck and Thomas Hirschhorn’s Gramsci Monument, places that demonstrate how learning can be more flexible and responsive to both its students and to ever changing educational contexts. We will combine the idea of a central base with mutable cells, spaces in and around the city that can more closely engage with the diverse people and situations of Zurich and beyond. By working both with the centre and the non-centre, perhaps we can start to imagine an architecture school fit for the 21st century.
We will continue to collaborate with Newrope in three ‘rooms of entanglement’, workshops where content, process and place are considered in an expanded forum.
Preparation phase:
-study of alternative places of education and the preparation of journals that compile the sites, programmes and central qualities of these open and more flexible schools.
-preparation of glossaries of learning.
-preparation of atlas of the HIL building and of possible non-central sites for the future department of architecture.
Elaboration phase:
-development of specific design proposals that incorporate new programmes and ideas of learning for the new department of architecture.
Diploma, FS 2026, ETH Zürich
Chair Caruso
Emilie Appercé, Tibor Bielicky, Adam Caruso
Newrope
Ellena Ehrl, Freek Persyn
Lecture MCBA Lausanne
What is it worth?
October 1, 2025, 18:30

Lycée Hôtelier de Lille, Caruso St John Architects 2011–2016
Adam Caruso
Lecture for the Conférence Espaces communs
Musée Cantonale des Beaux-Arts Lausanne, Auditorium
More information & registration
Diploma FS 2025
The project aimed to reactivate the former “Mosterei” as a contemporary cidery, capable of processing fruit sourced from surrounding orchards, silvapastures, and agroforestry systems, as envisioned during the research phase. The intention was to re-establish the Linthal cidery as a central figure in the revival of a once-thriving, now largely forgotten, regional agricultural tradition.
Upon first inspection, the architecture of the building strongly evokes the appearance of a sacred structure. The tower and expansive roof in particular create a spatial division reminiscent of a nave and transept, reinforcing this impression.
A key feature of the new cidery is the garden located behind the main building. Historically, this area housed a fruit orchard over 70 years ago. The reimagined "Mostereigarten" draws inspiration from the Hortus Conclusus and traditional monastic gardens, reflecting the initial architectural reading of the cidery as a place of identity and symbolic significance within the context of agricultural production. Like the monastery gardens, it functions as a site of experimentation, with various soil types and species of apples, pears, and other fruit trees. With the yields from the adjacent orangery and herb garden, the fruits are supplemented with products like apricots, cranberries or rhubarb in order to create new products and flavors. Selected varieties from this “laboratory” are then propagated in the nursery and distributed regionally. A new pavilion replaces the former garage and serves as a venue for public tastings, gatherings, and garden-related activities.
The original structure consists of two distinct sections: a former cow stable and an annex constructed a century ago for the original Mosterei. The stable now houses the Production Hall, where fruit is processed and pressed. The annex contains the bottling area, where the juice is packaged into bottles or bags.
The Production Hall’s spatial concept is inspired by the traditional layout of tithe barns, historically used for storing agricultural levies owed to the church. To accommodate the cidery’s modern machinery—such as the two-belt press and the washing-and-grinding system—ceiling structures have been removed and internal walls replaced with supporting columns, creating a more open and functional interior.
In compliance with cantonal food sanitation regulations, the production areas are designed to ensure hygiene and control. As the existing outer shell of the former stable is permeable, glass boxes in the interior are erected at the points, where fruit is exposed to the environment in order to keep the surroundings clean and protected.
Diploma HS 2024
Since the start of the industrial revolution, the western social system has been built on constant growth. Growth in population, economic performance, technological capabilities, cultural output - no area of human life has been untouched by this dynamic.
But it can no longer be ignored that we are at a breaking point. The planetary boundaries have been reached or already exceeded in many areas. The climate crisis as well as the biodiversity crisis are both negative consequences of this system.
A change of course is therefore not only needed, but inevitable due to demographics. Demographic developments will radically transform the society we know. Even if it still seems to be a distant future in Switzerland at the moment, the population here will also start to shrink in a few decades, even in urban areas. This is already the case in many European countries, and there are also areas in Switzerland that have been shrinking for decades. The area around the Klausen Pass is just such an area.
This project examines two case studies on both sides of the Klausen Pass to find out what kind of architecture makes sense in a shrinking society. How can places be created that enable a sustainable form of growth and coexistence in such a location? On the Glarus side, a new scheme is proposed for the former woollen weaving mill in Rüti, while on the Uri side, an new approach is implemented in the former Gasthof St. Anton in Spiringen.
Such shrinking places have one advantage: the forces of the market are significantly weaker and projects that are not aimed at optimising profits also have a chance to thrive. There is an opportunity to utilise these places creatively through small interventions and make them usable for society.
The projects are characterised by the fact that they consist of a large number of small interventions that can be carried out without great expense over a longer period of time. If an intervention is a success, it can be built upon; if it is a failure, it can be reacted to. In this context, architecture is not understood as a project, but as a process.
IEA Lecture
All buildings are beautiful
October 9, 2024, 18:00
Adam Caruso
IEA Lecture Series HS 24
Practice What We Teach?
ETH Zürich, ONA, Fokushalle
Diploma FS 2024
Ennenda is a place with a rich history that continues to shape its identity today. The intensive textile industry has left an indelible mark, contributing significantly to Ennenda's character. The architecture and facades of Ennenda stand as testament to that era, embodying both industrial prowess and wealth.
A notable historical landmark is the hanging tower on the Trümpi site. Despite being a reconstructed version of the original, this building still defines Ennenda's landscape, evoking memories of fluttering cloths from a bygone era.
The museum encapsulates this very essence of Ennenda, represented through its facades, placing them in the context of both historical and contemporary narratives. Just as vibrant prints from around the world were once replicated for textile printing, the exhibition mirrors these facades, faithfully reproducing selected elements.
These replicated facades serve as backdrops, layered with stories from the past and present. The building already hosts various functions, and the exhibition further enlivens the area by doubling as a part-time theater where these stories come to life. It creates moments where diverse people and perspectives converge, casting familiar scenes in a new light.
The set pieces are a blend of timber frames and three-dimensional textile facades.
As a ghostly presence, these facades shift between being a backdrop for dynamic projections and standing as delicate shadows that evoke the essence of Ennenda’s past. They create an ethereal atmosphere, showing the layers of history and capture the ephemeral nature of memory, reflecting how the town's history continues to influence its present.
Diploma HS 2023
Diploma FS 2023
The aim of the KW Walzmühle project is to restore the existing buil- dings of the Alpenbrückli complex and introduce new infras- tructures in order to re-activate the site and its reach onto the surrounding area and its population. The implementation of a bold communal hall linking the former grain silo and the old mill is meant to generate an intermediate space that could be used by the new users of the complex as well as the daily passers-by from the region. The site is in close proximity to the centre of Glarus as well as the train tracks and stands on a pedestrian path that sees a daily flux of users crossing the old mill factory thus making it a place with a high potential for social & commercial gatherings as well as a distribution node for locally produced goods.
The new site would offer a new commercial hub for the city of Glarus, allowing local producers & suppliers to gather in a centralised environment where each could benefit from the experience and networks of each other. The goal is to introduce a variety of co- working spaces, showrooms as well as storage facilities that could enable national and international investors and distributors to come and meet in person with a broader range of small to me- dium-scale producers in order to facilitate the export of locally produced goods across the rest of the country as well as beyond our borders. The importance of the local economy and locally sourced productions is becoming a critical part of fair trade poli- cies as well as the development of suburban regions that develop products further away from economic centres such as Zurich.
Diverse state entities and private companies have already taken the challenge to boost the economy of smaller companies and expand the reach of new start-ups and producers outwards of the valley in order to bring the region to a more competitive state in opposition to the country‘s leading food distributors like Coop and Migros. These mega companies control the majority of Switzerland‘s food market and thus possess an essential influen- ce on the prices and distribution networks of goods across the country making it very difficult for smaller companies to maintain a sustainable business and push their products onto the Swiss market on their own.
Diploma HS 2022
IEA Lecture
You cannot take risks without failing
March 15, 2022, 18:00
Adam Caruso
IEA Lecture Series FS 22
One Building, Failure Is an Option
ETH Zürich, ONA, Fokushalle
Diploma HS 2021
Referring to Lucius Burckhardts ‘Der kleinstmögliche Eingriff’ written in the 1980s, the project aims to de-objectify the Marriott Hotel that is located at the most central locations, yet remains mostly unnoticed by the cities’ inhabitants. In the sense of Burckhardts aesthetic survey, the project follows six paths that lead up to the many entrances of the building and proposed the smallest possible interventions to initiate transformation. By promoting a change in perception of the building and its relationship to the urban landscape the buildings strength of accessibility can once again be valued. It could then become a space for the public that ultimately prevents it from demolition.
Women Writing Architecture
Website Launch
June 30, 2021

The website womenwritingarchitecture.org was launched this week on June 30th. The new resource, an annotated bibliography of writing by women about architecture, is now publicly accessible to discover, browse and contribute to.
Making Plans for Living Together
Re-working the mosaic questions the arbitrariness imposed by the cadastre and sug-gests to the inhabitants of the neighborhood a new appreciation of their surrounding landscape. A series of architectural and landscape interventions revisit the fragmen-tation caused by the urban mosaic as it is today and thus draw a constellation along the Triemlifussweg highly beneficial for biodiversity. Their complementarity offers residents a sustainable infrastructure that allows them to feel native to their place and thus reinforces the feeling of belonging to a community.
Re-Use Ciba
The design proposes the conversion of the former parking garage of CIBA (Chemical Industry Basel). Today, the building is owned by Novartis and can only be used by its employees. The building is the only one of the available buildings situated on public land. Following the imminent departure of Novartis, the building is expected to be subject to the so-called „Heimfall“, whereby it will become property of the city.
The context is characterised by a high rate of foreigners, young people and low-income earners. The existing neighborhoods are organising themselves surprisingly well despite difficult conditions. There is a strong liveliness, which can be observed in numerous social and cultural institutions and their high frequency of visitors.
With the planned reorganisation of the former CIBA area, large-scale changes and gentrification processes are to be expected, which will lead to rising rents and eventually displacement.
In order to provide the local people with a public space of opportunity, a "Volkshaus" for Klybeck is to be initiated as an interface between the existing and new developments. In the spirit of the "Volkshäuser" of the emancipatory motivated labour movement around 1900, the project is organised on its own initiative in the form of a newly founded association.
In order to support the process of appropriation by the users, a temporal factor is included in the project: at no point should there be an end to the design process. Uses and interventions influence each other, the project is constantly in motion. This also corresponds to the structural logic of the existing building. The ramp system of the double helix emphasises a continuous space, which becomes a place of community. The regular structure of the building is overlayed with specific situations on a human scale. The monumental structure stands self-confidently along Horburgpark and uses its existing representational power.
Welche Heimat?
Society and the Image
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