EPFL Architecture

Part 1
Master Projects 2026

In July 2026, the Rolex Learning Center became a place of exchange around the Master Projects in Architecture at EPFL. Bringing together the final juries and the exhibition, the event offered a moment to reflect on a year of research, design, and experimentation, while opening this work to discussion with invited critics, faculty, students, and the public.



Pictures: Ben Begon

The final works of the Master’s students unfold as the outcome of individual journeys of research, exploration, and design. Each project traces its own path, yet together they open a shared field of questions about architecture today, spanning territory and public space, housing, industrial and cultural heritage, and architecture in the mountains. As the Final Juries take place, each project enters into dialogue with invited critics and faculty, revealing not only proposals, but also the questions, intentions, and explorations that shaped them.

Final Juries: 8.-15.7.26
Exhibtion: 8.-30.7.26
Rolex Learning Center
EPFL, Lausanne

Final Juries Timetable ↗︎
go.epfl.ch/sar-pdm-horaire-jurys-finaux-juillet

Projects: Master’s students in architecture; Juries: Corinne Waridel; Exhibition: Zoé Bahy, Sophie Delhay, Corinne Waridel; Graphic design: Sandi Gazic & Roman Karrer; Event: Valérie Jacot-Descombes (MEDIACOM); Setting-up: ISS Team

EPFL Architecture EPFL, Faculté ENAC EPFL architecturalexhibition livingarchives epflmasterprojects architecturestudents architectureproject architecturemodels models_architecture architecturelover architecturedaily architecturedetail GraphicDesign Roman Karrer SandiGazic

This week, the World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona takes place under the theme “Becoming. Architecture for a planet in transition.” A significant moment for our school, with EPFL Architecture strongly represented across the congress through Assemble, Aziza Chaouni (SONO), Charlotte Malterre-Barthes (RIOT), Paola Viganò (Lab-U), Peris+Toral Arquitectes, Sophie Delhay (EPFL Architecture / DC-Lab), Jo Taillieu (LIF), and the Structural Xploration Lab (SXL). Together, they will engage in key debates on cities and territories, the politics of architecture, housing, architectural pedagogy, and computational and structural research.

MONDAY 29.6


→ 10:45 Stage 2
Post Extractivism Urbanism
With 51N4E


→ 13:45 Stage 3
Collage as Construction: Reuse as Design Intelligence
With Flores & Prats
→ 15:00 Stage 1
The Politics of Reuse: Housing, Policy, and Urban Strategy
With House Europe!, Iñaqui Carnicero, Ann Pettifor
→ 16:45 Stage 1 .epfl.ch
Plenary Session with Baukunst, H Arquitectes, Transsolar, Mio Tsuneyama & Fuminori Nousaku, Nicolas Dorval-Borym Sana Frini

TUESDAY 30.6


→ 13:45 Stage 2
Domestic Space as Social Project. Architectural Strategies for Shared Living
With EMI Architekt*innen
→ 16:45 Stage 1 + Common Treasures
Plenary Session with Anna Puigjaner, Colectivo C733, Plan Común, Giovanna Borasi, Juan Herreros

WEDNESDAY 1.7


→ 13:45 Stage 6 .city.lab
Futures of Architectural Pedagogy: Knowledge, Practice and Emerging Contexts
With Tongji University, African Design Centre, Rural Studio



14:00 Stage 10 .epfl
The Wisdom Of Tradition: Culture as the Fourth Pillar of Sustainable Architecture
Round table with Gaetan Siew (UIA Past-President), Rahul Mehrotra, Alejandro Echeverri, Charles Waldheim, Camille Tallon

Image
1: Les Tres Xemeneies, Photo: Arnau Rovira

Part 5 End of Year Show 2026 – Projects

As we share this final glimpse of the End of Year Show 2026, we would like to thank everyone who contributed to making this final week possible, and Ben Bégon for capturing these moments so beautifully.

Wishing you all a rich summer of exploration, rest, and well-deserved disconnection, and courage to our Master's students for the final stretch.

To our Master's students, we wish you the very best for the final stretch before the juries, which will begin at the Rolex Learning Center on July 8, 2026. See you there!

More projects on livingarchives.epfl.ch

STUDIOS

First year


Second year
.gaymenzel

Third / Fourth year
.city.lab .laboratory .atelier .salimanaji .studio.epfl

Images: Ben Bégon

Part 4 End of Year Show 2026 – Projects

Another glimpse of the projects presented during the End of Year Show 2026 at EPFL Architecture. The exhibition showcases the breadth of questions, ambitions, and architectural explorations developed across the school throughout the semester.

More projects on livingarchives.epfl.ch

STUDIOS

First year


Second year
.gaymenzel

Third / Fourth year
.city.lab .laboratory .atelier .salimanaji .studio.epfl

Images: Ben Bégon

Congratulations to (TEXAS) who has received the Poster Award at the for the poster: “City of Watts: Wars, Norms and Foam – The Invention of an Architectural Language (1977–1998)”. His research explores how the 1970s energy crisis, emerging thermal regulations, and new construction technologies transformed architectural thinking in Switzerland. By tracing the rise of the airtight building envelope and its influence on architectural form, the project reveals how technical, political, and material constraints became catalysts for design innovation.

“This poster is a wall section, read from inside (left) to outside (right). But a wall does
not work in single file: its layers act together. A wall is, in Bruno Latour’s sense, a
composite — a heterogeneous assembly whose elements (matter, norm, form) hold
only by holding one another, and which no linear account can unbraid into causes
and effects, before and after. The three columns are therefore three simultaneous
readings of one object, not three stages of a story. What appears on the right (form)
was already at work on the left; what stands on the left (matter, norm) exists fully
only once it is given form.” (Tanguy Auffret Postel, “City of Watts: Wars, Norms and Foam – The Invention of an Architectural Language (1977–1998)”.)

studio.epfl



Images
1: ENAC Research Day 2026, Poster Award Winner: Tanguy Auffret Postel (TEXAS) for the poster “City of Watts” © EPFL ENAC
2: RDB / Ringier Dokumentation Bild — © Staatsarchiv Aargau.
3: SIA — © SIA.
4: Dow Chemical Company — © Science History Institute.
5: Technische Mitteilungen PTT, no. 10/1978, p. 406 — © Comtec.
6: Herzog & de Meuron, Frei Photographic Studio, 1981 — © Herzog & de Meuron.
7: Gigon Guyer Architekten — © Gigon Guyer.
8: Diener & Diener, Administration building, Hochstrasse, Basel, 1985–1988 / Photo: D.R.

.studio.epfl

Part 3 End of Year Show 2026 – Celebration and good bye

During the apero organised by the student association ASAR, students, assistants, faculty, and staff gathered to celebrate another year together.

It was also an occasion to mark the conclusion of Assemble and Gay Menzel’s five-year visiting teaching engagement with us. Through their studios, they have offered a distinctive approach to architectural education, encouraging experimentation, collaboration, and critical thinking within practice.

We are very grateful to them and their teams for their energy, generosity, and all they have shared with our school over these past five years. It has been a real pleasure to have them with us, and they will be missed. We wish them all the best for what comes next in their professional and academic journeys.


.gaymenzel

Images: Ben Bégon

Part 2 End of Year Show 2026 – Projects

The End of Year Show brings together work developed at EPFL Architecture across all years and studios, reflecting the diversity of approaches, questions, and forms of architectural practice explored throughout the semester.

More projects on livingarchives.epfl.ch

STUDIOS

First year


Second year
.gaymenzel

Third / Fourth year
.city.lab .laboratory .atelier .salimanaji @texas.studio.epfl

Images: Ben Bégon

Part 1 End of Year Show 2026 – Opening

We are delighted to share a glimpse of some memorable moments from the End of Year Show 2026. Congratulations to all, and thank you for bringing life, inspiration, and such care to your work and to our school.

This edition was also marked by an important milestone: the conclusion of Professor Paola Viganò’s teaching at EPFL after more than a decade leading the Lab-U. Over the past thirteen years, she has profoundly shaped generations of students through her teaching, research, and engagement with contemporary urban questions. We are deeply grateful for her lasting contribution to our community. We extend our warmest thanks to her and her team for their unwavering commitment and for the valuable knowledge they have shared. We will miss them and wish them every success in their future endeavours.

Images: Ben Bégon

Across models, drawings, research, and debate, the brings together the diverse investigations of ’s studios. Rooted in a project-based approach that connects design with technical, social, and critical questions, the exhibition reflects on how architecture engages contemporary forms of living, building, and collective space. From 26.–29.5.26, the End of Year Show invites visitors to discover four days of architectural work in dialogue with places, practices, and collective futures.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Opening Apero
Tu 26. May 2026, 18:30
Ada Lovelace Square

First year


Second year
.gaymenzel

Third / Fourth year
.city.lab .laboratory .atelier .salimanaji .studio.epfl

Graphic Design