Content
In Imaginary Homelands, Salman Rushdie writes, “We are all migrants from a country called the past” (Rushdie, 1992). Rushdie suggests that the movement and transitions we experience are not only spatial but also temporal. The summer school aims to explore the fluidic nature of belonging and identity, which are central concepts in placemaking. The summer school invites the participants to consider architecture a dynamic process shaped by movement and transitions across human and non-human actors instead of static constructs. Through this lens, we aim to highlight movement as a source and a method in architecture research. Borrowing the conceptual framework from Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of becoming, we look at the contingent relationship between migration, cultural identity and placemaking. We invite the participants to think about positionality and situated knowledges in architecture research, exploring how their subjectivities, shaped by migrations across socio-cultural landscapes, influence and inform their research methods. Furthermore, the summer school looks at the physical movement of materials through urban and rural environments, examining material movement as a catalyst that shapes urban commons, and landscapes. We also aim to explore the historical and contemporary movement of architecture commodities, examining how trade routes, production processes, and consumption patterns impact landscapes across both local and geographic scales.
The summer school invites 20 PhD and master’s degree students working in art, design, architecture, and similar creative and intellectual fields to initiate a conversation towards the privileging movement as a method in architecture research. We envision a non-hierarchical peer-to-peer working environment where participants bring their methodological strengths like writing, drawing, photography, or performative practices and advance their research and practice by looking through the lens of movement and transitions.
Daily Programm
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3
Day 4 Day 5Movement Matters
A SUMMER SCHOOL CURATED BY :
Akshar Gajjar (b.1998, India) is an architect and urban designer and is currently a PhD student at EPFL. His research looks at material production and it’s socio-ecological relationships. He studied architecture and urban design at CEPT University, EPFL and ETH Zurich. He is the author of “Living together: More-than-human ecologies for architectural thinking” (Birkhauser, 2025).
Debasish Borah (b. 1987, India) is a visual artist and curator working with performance, photography, and film. His research and practice examines imperial cartography, borders, and embodied aesthetics in the postcolonial; he is interested in the emotional and cognative relationship of postcolonial bodies with modernity.
Debasish recieved his Master’s in History, Theory and Design from CEPT University, India in 2011 and has taught across art, design and architecture schools in India, Europe and USA. He is the co-founder of Farside Collective, art space and book publishers and alsothe co-founder of Art Book Depot, India’s first independently organised Art book festival. He has exhibited and attended residencies in India, Middle-East and Europe.
Debasish is currently a Doctoral fellow at the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture, ETH Zurich and a visiting fellow at the Centre of Post Colonial Studies, Goldsmiths University of London, UK.
Jacopo Zani (b. 1996, Italy) completed an MSc in Architecture, Urbanism and Building Science at TUDelft in 2021, after a period of study at ETH Zurich, and a BSc at Politecnico di Milano. I have worked as an architect and researcher in Belgium and Italy. Currently I am a PhD student at the Institute of Urban and Landscape Studies (Lus), Chair of History and Theory of Urban Design, ETH Zurich where my research analyses the role of migrant workers, extracted minerals and industrial forests in the the spatial transformation related to coal mining in Post-war Belgium.
GRAPHIC DESIGN & STUDENT ASSISTANT Simon Nougué & Lauro Nächt (ETHZ)
With
GUEST TUTORS AND ARTISTS:
Prof. Dr. Philip Ursprung (b.1963, USA) is currently the head of the gta Insitute, D-Arch, ETH Zurich. He is an art historian and in 2023 he together with Karin Sander, he was the curator of the Swiss pavilion at the 18th Architecture Biennale, Venice. He has taught across universities across the world in Europe, Asia and Americas. He studied art history, history and German literature in Geneva, Vienna and Berlin. Since 2011 Professor of the History of Art and Architecture, ETH Zurich. 2017–2019 Dean of the Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich.
Prof Dr. Florian Dombias, (b. 1966, berlin, DE) has focused on wind, labiliities and techtonic activities. His artistic practice includes a variety of media and repetitive articulations in happenings and sound installations. Dlorian recieved his Master in Geophysics and defended his PhD thesis on “What is Earthquakr?” finally working as an artist. Since 1998, Florian has taught Fine arts, cultural history, Music in Europe and the Americas. 2003-2011 he was the founding director of Y (Institute for transdisciplinarity) at Berne University of Arts and been a Professor for Transdisciplinarity at the Zurich University of the Arts, since 2011. He has exhibited internattionally in and in 2010 recieved the German Sount Art Prize.
Alice Hertzog is a social anthropologist – works on questions of migration, mobility and circulations.
Her first focus in the field of urban anthropology, questions the social transformations occurring with post-migrant cityscapes. The second focus, situated in museum anthropology, investigates the circulation of contested cultural heritage held in ethnographic museums. She is the incoming director of the Ethnographic Museum of Uni Zurich – where her research has played key role in restitution of the Benin Bronzes.
Her first focus in the field of urban anthropology, questions the social transformations occurring with post-migrant cityscapes. The second focus, situated in museum anthropology, investigates the circulation of contested cultural heritage held in ethnographic museums. She is the incoming director of the Ethnographic Museum of Uni Zurich – where her research has played key role in restitution of the Benin Bronzes.
Dr. Alice Twemlow is Professor by Special Appointment in the Wim Crouwel Chair of the History, Theory & Sociology of Graphic Design & Visual Culture in the Faculty of Humanities at University of Amsterdam and a Research Professor/Reader at the Royal Academy of Art The Hague (KABK). Based at the intersection of environmental humanities, design history, and practice-oriented research, Twemlow’s research addresses topics including: the geological concept of deep time to better understand the long-lasting environmental implications of the processes, values, and products of the design industry; sensory research methods such as walking, touching and listening; and the representational biases and imbalances in the preservation of graphic design heritage.
Practical Informations!
A fee of CHF 250 for PhD/CHF 100 for Master's students covers all meals, accommodation, and materials for all workshop dates. The fee excludes transport to and from Gottardo and CHF 4.50 per day tourist tax. We will be staying in double-occupancy rooms with shared toilets. Please arrive in the morning of 23rd June 2025, the nearest train station is Airolo with a direct train connection from Zurich and Geneve. From Airolo the hotel is a 20 mins drive in a bus. Please email the organisers in case of any questions at movementmatters@ethz.ch. For practical information about the hotel and the location please see the website https://www.passosangottardo.ch/en/welcome/ and the SBB website.
The workshop grants 2 ECTS
The summer school is funded by ETHZ/EPFL summer school office. By participating in the Summer School, you acknowledge and agree that photos and videos may be taken during the event for documentation and promotional purposes. If you have any concerns, please let the organising team know beforehand. The summer school is primarily aimed at ETHZ/EPFL Doctoral students, however, Master students and Doctoral students from other universities are also welcome to apply.