Milica Topalovic: Catalogue data in Autumn Semester 2020

Name Prof. Milica Topalovic
Name variantsMilica Topalovic
Milica Topalović
FieldArchitecture and Territorial Planning
Address
Professur Arch.&Territorialplanung
ETH Zürich, ONA G 41
Neunbrunnenstr. 50
8093 Zürich
SWITZERLAND
Telephone+41 44 633 85 03
E-mailmt@arch.ethz.ch
URLhttps://topalovic.arch.ethz.ch
DepartmentArchitecture
RelationshipAssociate Professor

NumberTitleECTSHoursLecturers
052-1147-20LArchitectural Design V-IX: New Ecologies - Soil, Water, Labour (M. Topalovic) Information Restricted registration - show details
Please register (www.mystudies.ethz.ch) only after the internal enrolment for the design classes (see http://www.einschreibung.arch.ethz.ch/design.php).

Project grading at semester end is based on the list of enrolments on 3rd November 2020, 24:00 h (valuation date) only.

Ultimate deadline to unsubscribe or enroll for the studio is 3.11.2020, 24:00 h.
14 credits16UM. Topalovic
Abstract"New Ecologies" is dedicated to the practice of architecture in the post-anthropocentric era. In this semester we will look at Zurich and its region beyond-the-built, concentrating on agriculture.
Learning objectivePROCESS AND RESULTS
The semester consists of investigative journeys in the field and studio sessions. Architecture of Territory values intellectual curiosity, commitment and team spirit. We are looking for avid travellers and team workers, motivated to make strong and independent contributions. Our approach enables students to work with a range of methods and sources pertaining to territory, including ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, reading exercises, large-scale drawing techniques, photography, video, model making, and publishing work in print and online.
Several sessions will be dedicated to the tools: drawing software, GIS, photography, video editing, online CMS, and more. We will welcome guest experts and craft common agendas through debates. Students work in groups of two to three.

COLLABORATION
The studio series NEW ECOLOGIES is affiliated with Agriurbanisms research program at the Future Cities Laboratory in Zurich, due to commence in the fall of 2020. Cantonal and academic partners, experts, citizens and fellow designers will work with us in the process.
ContentWhat is the future of the manifold landscapes and territories across the world which support contemporary cities, such as Zurich, with water, food, human labour and other resources? How is human and non-human life in these environments affected by cities and by urbanisation? In our discipline, discussions on sustainability have remained focused on buildings and on cities, while these extended territories are equally exposed to rapid and far-reaching transformations with massive social and environmental implications. How can architects respond to these urgent changes? Can architecture become ecological, to go beyond-the-human and beyond-the-built, in order to engage with the environment as a whole?

NEW ECOLOGIES is a new studio series at the Architecture of Territory, dedicated to the practice of architecture for the post-anthropocentric era. Throughout the twentieth century, the anthropocentric and city-centric paradigms have locked architecture into binary thinking, which separated Man from Nature, Building from Landscape, and City and Countryside. Through the perspective of ecology, such unproductive divisions can be rethought to allow architectural discipline to broaden its agenda and take on new themes and approaches.

A crucial theme that has remained in the “blind field” of architecture is agriculture. With nearly half of the total land area on the planet currently dedicated to some form of agricultural production, agricultural landscapes might be the most urgent field of action to address the problematic of “sustainability”. Many types of agricultural practices have been linked to increasing risks for climate change, exhaustion of water and natural resources, depletion of soil fertility, as well as disadvantaging local population, and affecting quality of life. An awareness of the consequences of industrialisation of agriculture, including its addiction to fertilisers, pesticides and fossil fuels, has been growing. These issues stand at the core of the climate and biodiversity crises, and they call for new approaches in architecture too.

In this semester we will look at Zurich and its region beyond-the-built, concentrating on agriculture. The largest in Switzerland, the Metro Zurich is composed of the relatively compact city of Zurich and the densely built-up valleys extending along the Glattal and the Limmattal. Despite its high metropolitan density, agricultural lands still dominate the region of Zurich: in the Canton of Zurich 41.9% of the total surface is dedicated to agriculture. Whereas in the vicinity of the City of Zurich the land is under extreme urban pressure and at risk of being built up, other more peripheral landscapes are confronted with a decrease in population and the loss of social and economic resources.

Architecture and agriculture in the region of Zurich will be thought together through three highly interconnected ecologies: soil, water and labour. A close look at these ecologies in the territory will take us from agriculture research facilities and experimental permaculture farms, to food distribution networks and spaces, sites of industrial animal farming and all the way to the seasonal migrant worker groups that support agriculture of Zurich. Above these issues hovers the urgent need for a radical overhaul of agricultural practices. Recently, across the public landscape of Zurich, environmental movements—Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion, and other solidary pioneer groups and cooperatives — have gained momentum. These movements have helped raise awareness and promote pioneering practices and projects that will change the landscape of Zurich in the future. During the semester we will engage with Zurich’s land pioneer culture. Through intensive field explorations we will get to know the protagonists and learn from them. The result will be an online collection of investigative reportages, meant to inform the ecological design practices in architecture, and the public of Zurich.
Prerequisites / NoticeGroup work only.
No extra costs.

TRAVEL
Investigative journeys constitute the core of the project. On the first studio day, we will start our explorations by symbolically turning our backs to the city and venturing into agrarian landscape, which starts in the backyard of the ONA. Investigations will continue during the seminar week dedicated to experimental and pioneering agriculture. We will explore the field–by foot, by bike, by bus or by train–followed by individual days of investigation on the research topics and sites in the respective student teams. The seminar week will take place in the interval October 17–25, and it is integrated and mandatory. The cost frame is A.

CREDITS
The semester project offers the total of 19 credit points: The Design Studio with Integrated Discipline (Planning) 14+3 KP and the Seminar Week 2 KP.
063-0619-20LProjects on Territory (Thesis Elective) Information Restricted registration - show details 6 credits13AM. Topalovic
AbstractThe Thesis Elective "Projects on Territory" deals with ways of seeing, perceiving and portraying urban territories. Taking different perspectives, from architecture and visual art to urban theory, history and politics, the course enables student-travellers to create an urban portrait of a territory.
Learning objectiveNOTE: The course will temporarily not take place in the Fall Semester 2020 (HS20) and will be resumed in the Spring Semester 2021 (FS21).

Every student is a traveller who embarks on a journey in a territory, both literal and metaphorical, and creates a work about the experience. Travellers produce a travelogue, in free-form that is to be discussed with the teaching team. This can be a written and mixed media essay, presented as a booklet. In doing so, students create an insightful and critical work on urban space and urbanisation.
ContentNOTE: The course will temporarily not take place in the Fall Semester 2020 (HS20) and will be resumed in the Spring Semester 2021 (FS21).

Students will work in pairs of two or individually. Please apply with a short exposé, explaining your idea for a topic and suggest a possible travel route. Applications are accepted up until the first weeks of the semester. The course is mentored within the regular semester timeframe, with several meetings with assistants and at least two review session with the professor. It concludes two weeks after the final design studio review, with a booklet submission and oral presentation. Please inquire at the chair for more details on the current semester dates.

For past references and works samples please see:
https://topalovic.arch.ethz.ch/projects/travellers-2/

contact: aot@arch.ethz.ch
063-0703-00LArchitecture of Territory: Territorial Design in Histories, Theories and Projects2 credits2VM. Topalovic
AbstractThis lecture series sets up an agenda for widening the disciplinary field of architecture and urbanism from their focus on the city, or the urban in the narrow sense, to wider territorial scales, which correspond to the increasing scales of contemporary urbanization. It discusses the concepts of territory and urbanisation, and their implications for the work of architects and urbanists.
Learning objectiveThe course will enable students to critically discuss concepts of territory and urbanisation. It will invite students to revisit the history of architects’ work engaging with the problematic of urbanising territories and territorial organisation. The goal is to motivate and equip students to engage with territory in the present day and age, by setting out our contemporary urban agenda.

The lectures are animated by a series of visual and conceptual exercises, usually on A4 sheets of paper. All original student contributions will be collected and bound together, creating a unique book-object. Some of the exercises are graded and count as proof of completion.
ContentWithin the program, the five guest speakers are invited to open up perspectives on territory as Earth and the manifold meanings it embodies: Earth as a living world, a world-system, earth as soil, as land, as field, and even as dirt. By looking at the Earth and its ecologies, the guest speakers will propose novel and urgent approaches to territory and urbanisation: from “Gaia-graphy” of Earth's critical zones, and emergence of urban soil mapping as tool in urban design, to working with "dirt” in order to develop an ethics of care and maintenance for precarious environments.

17. 09. 2020
On Territory

24. 09. 2020
Architecture and Urbanisation

01. 10. 2020
Critical Zones: Sensors for Ghost Landscapes
Guest lecture by ALEXANDRA ARÈNES

08. 10. 2020
Methods in Territorial Research and Design

15. 10. 2020
Urban Soils Mapping: Case West Lausanne
Guest lecture by ANTOINE VIALLE

29. 10. 2019
Linking Soils Across the Urban-Rural Nexus
Guest lecture by JOHAN SIX

05. 11. 2020
Planetary Urbanisation: Hinterland

12. 11. 2020
Arable Lands Lost Lands
Guest lecture by CHARLOTTE MALTERRE-BARTHES

19. 11. 2020
Disappearance of the Countryside

26. 11. 2020
Dirty Theory: Dirt and Decolonisation
Guest lecture by HÉLÉNE FRICHOT

03. 12. 2020
Our Common Territories: An Outlook
Prerequisites / NoticeThe lectures will take place on Thursdays, 10.00-12:00, over ZOOM (https://ethz.zoom.us/j/97460528881). For this course, students live ‘online’ participation is required.

Lecturer:
Prof. Milica Topalovic

Team:
Charlotte Malterre Barthes, Metaxia Markaki, Gyler Mydyti, Nazli Tümerdem

Contact:
Metaxia Markaki
markaki@arch.ethz.ch

Our website:
https://topalovic.arch.ethz.ch/projects/territorial-design-in-histories-theories-and-projects-2/
064-0009-20LResearch Colloquium in Architecture and Urbanism Information Restricted registration - show details
Does not take place this semester.
3 credits1KM. Topalovic, S. Cairns
AbstractThis colloquium is open to doctoral candidates in fields related to Architecture and Urbanism. Its focus will be on contemporary topics in urbanism and will involve two or three one-day sessions over the course of the semester, each of which will be attended by an invited scholar.
Learning objectiveThe sessions will involve brief presentations of dissertation work by the participants followed by discussions with the guests.
ContentThis colloquium is open to doctoral candidates in fields related to Architecture and Urbanism. Its focus will be on contemporary topics in urbanism and will involve two or three one-day sessions over the course of the semester, each of which will be attended by an invited scholar.
Prerequisites / NoticeSpace is limited and participation is subject to approval from the organizers.
064-0017-20LResearch Methods in Landscape and Urban Studies Information Restricted registration - show details 2 credits2KG. Vogt, T. Avermaete, T. Galí-Izard, C. Girot, H. Klumpner, F. Persyn, C. Schmid, M. Topalovic
AbstractAdvanced PhD candidates of urban studies, urban and landscape design and urban sociology report about their experiences and insights in the concrete application of methods utilized for their research and scientific publications. Discussion of ongoing individual work, methodological questions, critical perspectives on urban and landscape design and city's relation to society.
Learning objectiveThe seminar's objective is to introduce PhD students to the multitude of research methodologies, tools and techniques within the fields of urban studies, urban design, territorial planning and landscape architecture. Based on the conveyed knowledge, the seminar ultimately aims at enabling PhD candidates to critically assess existing methods and tools, and to refine and develop an academically sound research framework for their own studies.
ContentThe seminar is organized along three modules that are arranged according to the PhD classes' particular needs:

A: Methodology Module >>> Introduction of a research methodology by an expert / short contributions by PhD students + exercise and discussion / moderated by doctoral program coordinator (Lecturer/Dozent). This will include quantitative and qualitative methods such as ethnographic research, case study research, grounded theory, survey design, mapping, methods in statistical and data analysis, etc. (3-4 per semester)

B: Literature Module >>> Reading sessions organized and conducted by doctoral program coordinator (Lecturer/Dozent) / invited experts from the Department. These sessions will support the methodology modules with theoretical and historical texts with a specifically tailored reading syllabus. (4-5 per semester).

C: Techniques Module >>> Introduction into research techniques and tools / organized by doctoral program coordinator (Lecturer/Dozent) / conducted by respective experts. These modules will make students familiar with technical aspects such as academic writing, or the the use of GIS software, the ETH library or the gta archive, etc.(2-3 per semester)
Prerequisites / NoticeThe seminar is jointly organized by the coordinator of the Doctoral Program in Landscape and Urban Studies, and the I-LUS faculty. Although located at the D-ARCH, the seminar is open to all doctoral students at ETH who are involved or interested in research at the urban and territorial scale.

This seminar is complementing the gta doctoral colloquiums on Thursday afternoons.

Hybrid teaching: Personal teaching in ONA Design In Dialog Lab (ONA E25) and online teaching:
https://ethz.zoom.us/j/2317208647