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