Teaching
ETH Zurich
Final Crits: Making Plans for Living
Studio Adam Caruso, ETH Zurich
15–16 December 2020
Students from Adam Caruso's studio at ETH Zurich present their projects to guest critics including Lisa Fior (muf architecture/art, London), Summer Islam (Material Cultures, Studio Abroad, London), Dr. Marina Olsen (Karma International Gallery, Zurich), and Axel Simon (editor, Hochparterre).
"A few semesters ago, the studio tentatively made moves towards modernism. The evident failure of architecture to address the imbalance of contemporary life provided the motivation to look again at the more ideological and programmatic promises of modernism, particularly the second wave of the 60s and 70s, whose discourses were broadened to encompass themes of gender, the legacies of empire and the growing imbalances in our environment. The consumer driven economy and its insatiable consumption of precious resources is not sustainable, and the desires it claims to fill can never be satisfied. Drawing on a diverse range of references; from the cave paintings made by our distant ancestors, to St Francis’s labours as depicted by Giotto in Assisi, from the multiple disciplines encompassed by classical Indian dance to the slow and deliberate narratives in the films of Tacita Dean; the studio attempts to discern new practices that address the challenges of today."
Main image: Atlas of Liberating Acts, Olga Cobuscean, Thomas Rohrer, 2020
Projects (and images, left to right):
Pablo Stadelmann, Cyrill Wechsler
Christian Cotting, Patrick Holzer
Marina Medic, Maria Unterlechner
Ansgar Stadler, Philip Stöckler
Paul Grieguszies Schäfer, Jaehee Shin
Caroline Dietlmeier, Sara Katharina Keller
Charlotte Reuse, Manon Zimmerli
Related news
Students in studio Adam Caruso at ETH Zurich will spend their Autumn semester working on a group of structures around Helvetiaplatz in Zurich. Through model-making and drawing students will engage with not only the adaptive reuse of existing buildings, but also how we can reframe the cultural value of them.
Students from Studio Adam Caruso at ETH Zurich present their final projects to a panel of guest critics including Céline Bessire, Maria Conen, Fredi Fischli, Françoise Fromonot, Tine Milz, and Niels Olsen.
Adam Caruso is taking part in the Institut für Entwurf und Architektur One Building lecture series at ETH Zurich. His lecture, You cannot take risks without failing, will take place at the ONA building Fokushalle on 15th March, 18.00 hrs.
Students in studio Adam Caruso at ETH Zurich will spend their Spring semester exploring the protestant churches of Zurich; spiritual, social and spatial public resources that are underused in the city.
Students from Studio Adam Caruso at ETH Zurich present their final projects to a panel of guest critics including Oliver Lütjens, Tine Milz, Li Tavor, Matthias Winter.
Students from Studio Adam Caruso at ETH Zurich present their projects to a panel of guest critics including Marianna Charitonidou, Fredi Fischli and Niels Olson.
Students in studio Adam Caruso at ETH Zurich will spend their Autumn semester exploring the sensibility of the interim; looking to the long history in the built environment of improvising and adapting.
This year Unit 12, led by Peter St John, investigated the theme of Second Life, in the context of the design of buildings. Based on the belief that almost everything can have a second life, the project intends to address London's pressing need for more housing and the complex solutions for the shortage of land. The proposals for the reuse and densification of existing post-war housing stock in South London show how this can be a better solution than redevelopment.
Project review
Building in Hamburg
In a talk for the Architecture Foundation, Associate Ben Speltz presents Caruso St John's work in Hamburg over the past decade, focusing on the practice's approach to working within the urban fabric of the city centre and introducing two recently completed projects, the Gortz Palais and Grosser Burstah Office Building.
Rod Heyes will give a talk at the Architectural Association as part of a symposium focusing on adaptive reuse. The symposium brings together a group of leading architects to present their projects, with the intention of stimulating discussion around their lessons for education, practice, and policy.
Lecture
Casabella Lectures
Adam Caruso in conversation with Federico Tranfa
Milan, Italy
8th May 2023
Adam Caruso will be in conversation with Casabella’s editor Federico Tranfa at the Theatro Milano for the magazine’s annual lecture series. The discussion will focus on the design process, exploring projects like the recently completed Swiss Life Arena.
Adam Caruso and fellow guests Jan De Vylder, Elke Krasny and Astrid Staufer will attend a 'Supercrit' and panel discussion on conversion in architecture, to mark the end of an exhibition of student work at TU Wien.