Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne

About this course

Housing and Cities is a design-oriented architecture course that focuses on key moments of European urban housing history. It looks into ordinary or replicated housing types of different social classes that contributed to the definition of urban identity across borders and time.

Each topic is first introduced through a general overview that examines housing from an urban point of view. Secondly, each topic is illustrated through a typological analysis, aiming for a detailed vision of domestic life at each time.

Students are encouraged to have an operative view of the course, appreciating how modern and contemporary architecture has reinterpreted and been influenced by different housing models.

• Identify the cultural context and time of diffusion of housing types
• Examine the plans of different housing examples and recognise types of distribution and spatial organisation
• Estimate how a specific type of housing has influenced urban character
• Contextualise different types of housing historically and socially