School Lecture Series: Thomas Friberg + Sophie Piticco, pool Architektur / EPFL Architecture
Event details
| Date | 27.10.2026 |
| Hour | 18:30 › 20:00 |
| Speaker | Thomas Friberg + Sophie Piticco, pool Architektur |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
Building for Disassembly
Temporary Sports Halls, Huts and a Hotel
Growing student numbers and the need to renovate numerous school facilities prompted the Canton of Zurich to seek a temporary solution for sports facilities. Each building is intended to remain at a given location between three to fifteen years, until it is either relocated or stored for future reassembly. pool Architektur responded by designing a prefabricated timber construction system that enables a variety of spatial configurations and appearances, allowing for careful integration into the surrounding environment. Other projects such as the room-within-a-room installation for “El Gato Muerto” or the temporary hotel “Momentum” have evolved as a result of pool’s building for disassembly.
Thomas Friberg + Sophie Piticco, pool Architektur
pool Architektur evolved from a discussion platform for debates on architecture and urban planning and began its practical work as a collective in 1998. The office and its form are understood as a work in progress with regard to an ever-changing profession. The office has won numerous competitions and is primarily active in urban planning at different scales as well as residential, infrastructure and public building construction. Over the past decades, ideas and solutions have changed, as have names and faces, because diversity and change are at the heart of pool Architektur’s identity.
Thomas Friberg studied architecture at ETH Zurich. After graduating, he worked at ETH Studio Basel, David Chipperfield Architects, joining pool in 2008. In 2018 he was admitted as a new partner.
Sophie Piticco studied architecture at EPF Lausanne and ETH Zurich. After internships in Munich and Helsinki, she joined pool Architektur after graduating in 2017. Since 2023 she is an associate at the firm.
Part of School Lecture Series, Autumn 2026, Learning Vol.1
We are told that learning is no longer confined to the school or the university, but it has become a continuous process that involves the totality of life. Yet in accepting this reality, we take for granted several questions that loom large within the contemporary idea of learning. In a time when technology and information are ubiquitous, does it still make sense that for learning to happen or be confined within a place? Is learning still an asymmetrical relationship where there are teachers and a student? And above all, is learning accessible, or has it become too expensive a commodity? In this lecture series, we’ll attempt to answer these questions by investigating learning on different levels such as technology, construction systems, educational spaces, and above all, making architecture. Indeed, the question that is more than anything else crucial to us is whether architecture is still a place of learning and not only of empowering those who have capital to build it. We will look at schools, drawings, robots, and measuring devices. We will ponder whether these things are only ‘tools’ to achieve a result or can still be vital places for learning.
Recordings available on YouTube
@epflarchitectureschool
Graphic Design
Roman Karrer & Sandi Gazic
Temporary Sports Halls, Huts and a Hotel
Growing student numbers and the need to renovate numerous school facilities prompted the Canton of Zurich to seek a temporary solution for sports facilities. Each building is intended to remain at a given location between three to fifteen years, until it is either relocated or stored for future reassembly. pool Architektur responded by designing a prefabricated timber construction system that enables a variety of spatial configurations and appearances, allowing for careful integration into the surrounding environment. Other projects such as the room-within-a-room installation for “El Gato Muerto” or the temporary hotel “Momentum” have evolved as a result of pool’s building for disassembly.
Thomas Friberg + Sophie Piticco, pool Architektur
pool Architektur evolved from a discussion platform for debates on architecture and urban planning and began its practical work as a collective in 1998. The office and its form are understood as a work in progress with regard to an ever-changing profession. The office has won numerous competitions and is primarily active in urban planning at different scales as well as residential, infrastructure and public building construction. Over the past decades, ideas and solutions have changed, as have names and faces, because diversity and change are at the heart of pool Architektur’s identity.
Thomas Friberg studied architecture at ETH Zurich. After graduating, he worked at ETH Studio Basel, David Chipperfield Architects, joining pool in 2008. In 2018 he was admitted as a new partner.
Sophie Piticco studied architecture at EPF Lausanne and ETH Zurich. After internships in Munich and Helsinki, she joined pool Architektur after graduating in 2017. Since 2023 she is an associate at the firm.
Part of School Lecture Series, Autumn 2026, Learning Vol.1
We are told that learning is no longer confined to the school or the university, but it has become a continuous process that involves the totality of life. Yet in accepting this reality, we take for granted several questions that loom large within the contemporary idea of learning. In a time when technology and information are ubiquitous, does it still make sense that for learning to happen or be confined within a place? Is learning still an asymmetrical relationship where there are teachers and a student? And above all, is learning accessible, or has it become too expensive a commodity? In this lecture series, we’ll attempt to answer these questions by investigating learning on different levels such as technology, construction systems, educational spaces, and above all, making architecture. Indeed, the question that is more than anything else crucial to us is whether architecture is still a place of learning and not only of empowering those who have capital to build it. We will look at schools, drawings, robots, and measuring devices. We will ponder whether these things are only ‘tools’ to achieve a result or can still be vital places for learning.
Recordings available on YouTube
@epflarchitectureschool
Graphic Design
Roman Karrer & Sandi Gazic
Practical information
- General public
- Free