The Department
![Pavilion of Reflections, Manifesta 11, Zurich, 2016 [Studio Tom Emerson]](/en/departement/_jcr_content/par/image/image.imageformat.1286.1279579234.jpg)
D-ARCH is an outstanding research and teaching environment. Internationally established practicing architects and leading researchers contribute to the development of the broad range of skills necessary to the discipline, fostering an inclusive learning and research environment that reflects the institution’s polytechnic endeavour and public role. The studio culture, complemented by a variety of labs, archives, libraries and research sites, is D-ARCH’s most valuable asset. It is based on the cultural and intellectual diversity of the student, assistant, professorial and administrative bodies. D-ARCH is distinctive in its academic structure. By combining multidisciplinarity and fundamental research with practice and excellence in teaching, the department constantly pushes the frontiers of knowledge while staying true to the core values of design.
Vision
To equip and empower future architects to skilfully and critically engage with our increasingly complex natural and built environment and to propose and design desirable and liveable buildings, cities and landscapes for the well-being of our planet and society.
Mission
D-ARCH is a leading research and teaching institution dedicated to the advancement of architectural design at the building, urban, landscape and territorial scales. Architectural design is fundamentally holistic in that it utilises a broad epistemological and technical apparatus to give shape to cultural, ecological, environmental, social and economic needs. And, by constitution, architectural design is concerned both with the analysis of the past and the making of the future at every scale, from the local to the global.