Architecture and Building Process

The Chair of Architecture and Building Process equips prospective architects with the skills they need to successfully position themselves as generalists in architectural practice. In our teaching, we link the foundational knowledge gained in core subjects with topics such as acquisition, building economics, definition of services, and design coordination in order to instill students with an in-depth understanding of the building process and the importance of integrated architectural design. In our research work, we investigate economic and construction-related conditions that shape the building process in order to arrive at strategies for fostering a sustainable building culture in Switzerland.

Research Focus 1: Development and Testing of an Urban Quality Index (UQI)
Content: In recent years, multiple city indexes and rankings are gaining recognition by city administrations and urban planners as a tool for benchmarking and in promoting the attractiveness of cities. With the primary objective of enhancing the quality of life in the cities, various government organisations, industry leaders, academia, expert agencies and international organisations are continuously working towards defining liveability from their perspective. Despite many indexes and rankings, the assumption that these indexes can help to impact quality-of-life and liveability are uncertain. The indexes are generally created as a top-down approach and are driven by agencies of the cities. Because of development saturation and overexploited city indexes for the tier-one cities, it is reasonable to conduct liveability research on second and third-tier cities which offer more opportunities for liveable and sustainable development. (PhD Mayank Kaushal)


Research Focus 2: Urban development
Subject: Access to the city: Urban development project impacts in the Zürich Agglomeration
Content: Development of urban areas – a global necessity due to the twin processes of rapid urbanization and environmentally mandated densification – creates advantage and wealth for some, displacement and disadvantages for others. As cities around the world develop at increasing speed, who are the winners and losers? Who benefits from urban development projects and who doesn’t? How do development projects affect the communities in which they take place?


Research Focus 3: Cooperation and Collaboration
Content: The Chair of Architecture and Building Process deals with the profession of the architect and every construction following interests of participating planners.
Different protagonists, team oriented and successful cooperation between all participants in the entire planning and building process.


Research Focus 4: The Value / Loss of Craft
Content: Through the use of more technology and digitalization ... a transformation is currently taking place.
Technology and digitalization enable increasingly more powerful and more industrialized buildin cog mponents.
To analyze the role of craftsmanship and its artifacts in todays planning and building culture and to highlight possible current approaches to its application


Research Focus 5: Factors influencing the planning and building process
We are investigating the social, environmental technology–related, economic and political influences that shape the building process, in order to develop strategies for promoting sustainable architectural culture in Switzerland.