Research
Research approaches /Chair of Architecture and Building Process – Prof. Sacha Menz
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 questions: What are the challenges and gaps concerning various international indexes which promote and assess urban quality in cities?
How do decisions made by government organisations, urban planners, urban designers, architects and private developer impact the quality-of-life in second-tier cities in Europe?
How can the residents and city administrators play an active role in creating a high-quality urban environment through continuous participation?
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 question: As global urban development continues space, this research asks how urban development projects impact who has access to the city. We use geographic, economic, and social frameworks to understand this question. For this research we focus on the Zürich Agglomeration as a test-case to evaluate this methodology for exploring the impact of development projects on urban residents. (PhD Susannah Cramer-Greenbaum)
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 target: By describing and explaining inherent collaboration relationships, the research aims to identify the key features that arise in this negotiation between technical logic and abstract conception within the architectural design environment.
Possible approaches:
- Cooperation between different planning disciplines
- Cooperation between architect and engineer in Switzerland
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 question: How can craft and digital production work together (norms)?
Possible approaches:
- New versus old craft
- The loss of craft in the 21st century
- The displacement of craft through digitalization in the planning and building process
- Craft versus standardization
- Historical analysis of craft (e.g. Arts and Crafts)
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.
Possible approaches:
- The economic effects of digitalization on the planning and building process
- The influence of disruptive technologies and robotics on the planning and building process in the future
- In what circumstances is influence applied to the planning and building process for the widest range of living conditions?
- Basic political impacts on housing approaches
Please send max. 3 pages research-plan to:
Dr. Yingying Jiang,