“To emphasize (...) dubious uses of risk is perverse, a dirty way of talking about a
\r\nclean scientific subject”
\r\nMary Douglas, Risk and Blame, 36.
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\r\nAs the baseline condition of so many territories shaped by extractive industries, administrative delay, and climatic instability, risk is prevalent. Yet ecological risk—pollution, fires, floods, heatwaves, droughts—is still presented as problems to be solved rather than conditions to be inhabited. This also speaks to an outsourcing of risk through externalized consequences of spatial injustice. Banks, developers, material supply chains, normative institutions, subcontracting hierarchies —all contend with calculated risk. This edition of Pressure Points asks us to unpack what it means to live with the risk, how it is managed, commodified, quantified, invented, politicized, instrumentalized, tamed, and to think, design, cohabitate intellectually and physically with it. The assembled guests should help us think and build literacy toward developing tools for living within uncertain territories and futures.
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\r\nJess Myers
\r\nMonday, November 16, 17:00 CET
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\r\nJess Myers is an urbanist whose practice includes work as an editor, writer, podcaster and curator, and is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Syracuse University. Previously, Myers was an assistant professor of architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design. She has worked as an archivist, translator and analyst in New York and Paris. Myers served as a co-steward of the Architecture Lobby’s New York chapter and as the series editor for SEIU’s book series, Taking Freedom. Her research takes many forms, including a variety of multimedia platforms, which she uses to explore politics and residency in urban conditions. Myers’ podcast, Here There Be Dragons focuses on the intersection of identity politics and security policy in public space through the eyes of New Yorkers, Parisians and Stockholmers. Myers’ work has been published in The Architect’s Newspaper, Log, The Funambulist Magazine, Failed Architecture, Avery Review, Dwell and l’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui. Her most recent exhibition, “A Pause Is Not A Break,“ was exhibited widely, including at the Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Iowa and Carleton University.
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\r\nRIOT (Research and Innovation on Territory) is a laboratory engaged in pedagogy and research within the Institute of Architecture (ENAC) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology–EPFL, led by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes with Elif Erez, Flore Guichot, Jeremy Ratib, Summer Islam, Antoine Iweins, Kathy Kao, Nathalie Marj, Romain Dubetier-Grenier, Sylvie Clavel, and Saira Mohammed. Believing that the construction sector and design disciplines must pivot and wholeheartedly engage in the current social and climatic urgencies by rewiring themselves to face and repair the harm, RIOT utilizes tactics and strategies to decarbonize, decolonize, and depatriarchalize space production–by design.
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Across models, drawings, research, and debate, the End of the Year Show brings together the diverse investigations of EPFL Architecture’s studios. Rooted in a project-based approach that connects design with technical, social, and critical questions, the exhibition reflects on how architecture engages contemporary forms of living, building, and collective space. From 26.–29.5.26, the End of the Year Show invites visitors to discover four days of architectural work in dialogue with places, practices, and collective futures.
\r\n
\r\nExhibition + Reviews
\r\n31.05 - 04.06.2027
\r\nEPFL SG Building and other locations
\r\n
\r\nOpening Apero
\r\nTu 1. June 2027, 18:30
\r\nAda Lovelace Square
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\r\nTimetable and Map ↗︎
\r\nStudio Presentations ↗︎
\r\nLiving Archives ↗︎ (online in July)
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\r\nStudios
\r\nXXX
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\r\nGraphic Design
\r\nSandi Gazic & Roman Karrer
The final works of the Master’s students unfold as the outcome of individual journeys of research, exploration, and design. Each project traces its own path, yet together they open a shared field of questions about architecture today, spanning territory and public space, housing, industrial and cultural heritage, and architecture in the mountains. As the Final Juries take place, each project enters into dialogue with invited critics and faculty, revealing not only proposals, but also the questions, intentions, and explorations that shaped them.
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\r\nDates
\r\nFinal Juries: 07.-14.07.27
\r\nExhibtion: 07.-31.07.27
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\r\nVenue
\r\nRolex Learning Center
\r\nEPFL, Lausanne
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\r\nFinal Juries Timetable ↗︎
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\r\nCredits
\r\nProjects: Master's students in architecture, Exhibition: Zoé Bahy, Sophie Delhay, Corinne Waridel, Graphic design: Sandi Gazic & Roman Karrer, Event: Valérie Jacot-Descombes (MEDIACOM), Setting-up: ISS Team