First seminar series extended

The rows of chairs in the Archizoom exhibition room at EPFL were all occupied and the virtual seminar room was also bustling on 3 November 2025, when around 100 people attended Paola Viganò’s opening of the seminar series "Baukultur – a European Genealogy". At the first session, London architect Sarah Wigglesworth took a critical look at the current situation – particularly in England, where issues related to Baukultur are having a hard time gaining traction.

The second session focused on landscapes with Jean-Marc Besse from Paris and Michael Jakob from Geneva, while the third and fourth sessions centred on post-war critiques of modernism. The first guests were Jean-Louis Violeau from Nantes and Paolo Scrivano from Milan, who reflected on the different movements in Italy and France from the 1950s to the 1970s. Angelika Schnell from Vienna and Irina Davidovici from Zurich shed light on developments in Berlin, Milan and Ticino at the latest event.

The session on 20 January 2026 on "Umbaukultur" (guest: Paul Landauer from Paris) brings this first series to a close, but only for the time being: Inspired by the discussions of the first series, the three members of the steering group – Paola Viganò (President and Professor at EPFL and IUAV), Pierre Caye (Research Director at CNRS Jean Pépin) and Andri Gerber (Professor at ZHAW) have decided to continue the series in spring 2026. The focus will now turn to Switzerland and the various roots of its Baukultur movement. The exact dates and guests will be announced in the coming weeks.