Welcome Information for New Professors

Getting started at ETH

As new faculty member you will receive several information from various ETH Staff Units and from the Administrative Department, e.g. from the Office for Faculty Affairs (Stab Professuren), Consulting for Professors Unit (Beratung Professorinnen und Professoren) and Finance and Controlling. You will also receive invitations and visits from these units within your first couple of weeks or months at ETH Zurich. If you have questions regarding your start at the Department of Architecture and during the first few months, please contact your onboarding team and/or Davina Kieber Hitzler (Deputy Coordinator D-ARCH).

Links:

ETH New Faculty Portal I Professorships I ETH Staff Units I ETH Administrative Departments I

Our department

The Department of Architecture is one of total of 16 departements at ETH Zurich. It has around 40 professors and the wide range of competencies are mainly located in the 5 institutes of the department.

Since August 1, 2023, the new Executive Board has led the department in strategic and operational matters. Prof. Matthias Kohler is the head of the department. He is the first point of contact for the President and the Executive Board of ETH, represents the department externally and heads many internal committees. He works closely with the other members of the D-ARCH Executive Board: Prof. Dr. Tom Avermaete (Deputy Head), Prof. Dr. Elli Mosayebi (Director of Studies for BSc/MSc Architecture) and Prof. Dr. Silke Langenberg (Director of Research).

The regular term of D-ARCH Executive Board covers two academic years, currently from August 1, 2023 to July 31, 2025, and is supported by the Department Staff, which provides services for all members of the Department.

Links:

President I ETH Executive Board I Departments I Institutes I Department in Numbers I D-ARCH Executive Board I Governance and Administration

Code of Conduct, Culture and Care

The Department of Architecture is committed to Equal Opportunities, Diversity and Parity at all levels and in all activities. It promotes and demands mutual respect and expects its members to treat each other responsibly and respectfully, regardless of origin, education, religion, beliefs, physical ability, gender or sexual identity.

The Department is comitted to increase gender parity across all levels of its faculty and to take leadership in embedding awareness of, and strong engagement with matters of diversity and parity in academic and architectural culture.

ETH Zurich and D-ARCH offers support to its members and guests, for example in difficult life situations, in cases of mental distress or in conflict situations. Alice Keller is Head of Care and Conflict Management at the Department of Architecture and offers support to all members of our community – students, mid-level scientific staff, professors, and admin-tech staff but also to our invited guests.

Links:

Culture and Care I Living Respect I Code of Conduct Respect I Download D-ARCH Code of Conduct I Care and Conflict Management

Compliance

ETH Zurich promotes autonomy and personal responsibility and requires all ETH members to comply with legal regulations and internal directives. The Compliance website serves as an orientation aid and provides an overview of the legal regulations and internal directives that all ETH members must observe in their work. In addition to the basic rules, the responsibilities and further information are summarized with useful tips for daly work.

Link: Compliance

Governance and decision-making

Decision-making within D-ARCH is done in different committees (some also called conferences). They are responsible for different departmental affairs, e.g. teaching, research, strategy. They vary in composition and for most, all groups (Stände) in the D-ARCH are represented: professsors, scientific staff (Mittelbau), lecturers & postdocs and doctoral students, Bachelor's & Master's students as well as technical and administrative staff. Dates of the meetings are published in the D-ARCH semester agenda as well as in the ETH academic calendar.

The following list gives an overview about the diffferent committees:

• Department Conference (DK)
• Professors Conference (PK)
• Department Committee (DA)
• Teaching Commission Msc Architecture (UK Arch)
• Teaching Commission MSc Landscape Architecture (UK Msc LA)
• Teaching Commission MSc Integrated Building Systems (UK BSc IBS)
• Doctoral Committee (Doktoratsausschuss, DokA)
• Zulassungsausschuss (ZulA)
• Notenkonferenz (NK)
• Parity- and Diversity Commission (PDK)

All the tasks and compositotions of of the different committees can be found in the bylaws (D-ARCH Geschäftsordnung). If you are unsure to what committee to participate and/or submit your request, please talk to Ms Davina Kieber Hitzler. All professors are member of the Departments Conference (DK) and Professors Conference (PK). If you cannot attend a meeting, please let the D-ARCH Dean's Office know well in advance: .

Links:

Semester Agenda I Academic Calendar I Download D-ARCH Geschäftsordnung (PDF, 12.5 MB) I Governance and Administration

Teaching

D-ARCH actually offers study programs as follows: BSc/MSc Architecture, MSc Landscape Architecture, MSc Integrated Building Systems. The structure and curricula is based on the study regulation and is supported by Mr Rudolf Krieg, Study Coordinator, and the Study Administration Team. In general, the course catalogue is central to ETH teaching. Information to all aspects of teaching at ETH are summarized in the Guidelines for lecturers.

Design studio (Entwurfsklassen), seminar weeks and the master thesis is conducted, in a first step, by the internal semester enrolments. Programs are submitted in advance by the registred chair.

Links:

Study Administration Office I Study Programmes I Curriculum and course schedule I Legal basis Bachelor/Master I Course Catalogue I Semester enrolment I Agenda Internal Enrolments I Guidelines for lecturers

Educational Development

ETH offers support in Educational Development in order to promote excellence and advancements in ETH teaching. Dr. Vera Kaps is Educational Developer at the Department of Architecture and contact person for issues in the area of teaching at D-ARCH. She provides support to lecturers and coordinates developments within degree programmes in cooperation with LET. She is familiar with best-practice scenarios, current educational technology, services and instruments for teaching development. Educational developers also offer guidance on innovation projects in the context of applications for Innovedum financing.

Links zu verwandten Themen:

Educational Development D-ARCH I ETH Educational Development I Innovedum

Doctorate

Beside the individual doctoral studies D-ARCH offers three doctoral programmes in the field Architecture and Technology, History and Theory in Architecture, and Landscape and Urban Studies. Information about supervising doctoral students is avaiable online: Information for doctoral thesis supervisors. For all questions regarding doctorate please contact Ms Sara Marinari from the Doctoral Office at D-ARCH.

Links:

D-ARCH Doctoral Programmes I Doctoral Studies D-ARCH I Doctoral Administration ETH I Download Leitfaden Doktorat (PDF, 2.2 MB) I Information for doctoral thesis supervisors I Legal basis

Research

Within the Department of Architecture, research activities range from sets of discreet individual projects to much larger national and international research programmes, which contribute fundamentally to ETH's strategic action areas and in several research areas. Research at the department is driven by the three Doctoral Programmes, the Center for Advanced Studies, by Research Centers (i.e. Future Cities Laboratory, NCCR Digital Fabrication, ETH Wohnforum - ETH CASE), and also by Libraries, Collections, and Archives. Numerous members of the department are involved in competence centers at ETH Zurich. The office of research is your first point of contact for national and international funding programmes. If you have questions regarding research, please contact the Department Coordinator Mr Zeljko Medved and the Director of Research Prof. Dr. Silke Langenberg.

Links zu verwandten Themen:

Research ETH Zurich I Research D-ARCH I Strategic Action Areas

Finances, Employment and Leadership Support

You will have an annual group budget (for salaries, equipment and consumable) as well as a start-up. However, ETH Zurich also offers competitive, internal funding for different purposes. The Research Funding site gives a good overview of the different possibilities for internal funding programmes. If you have questions on finances and/or controlling please contact Ms Lisa Giordano.

As a supervisor at ETH Zurich you might have some questions on topics to all about employment. If you want to recruit your group members and have more information about employment and salary, please get in contact with Ms Bidi Beck, Deputy Head of D-ARCH Finance/HR/Controlling or Mr Michael Wobmann, HR Partner for the Department of Architecture at ETH HR Consulting.

ETH is committed to an open leadership culture based on dialogue and actively supports you in your leadership role and in development topics. The Development and Leadership unit offers support and services around the topics of leadership and development.

Links:

Research funding I All about employment I Recruitment I Leadership and development

IT Support

The department offers different central and decentralized IT services for teaching and education. A few brief tips concerning IT at D-ARCH are available online: IT Start@D-ARCH. If you have questions regarding IT issues or need help to set up your ETH webpage, please get in contact with Mr Serge Bilgeri.  

Links: IT Service Group D-ARCH

Raplab

The department offers infrastructure for model-making and prototyping that extends from traditional to computer-controlled (CNC) equipment and is available at the Rapid Architectural Prototyping Laboratory (Raplab). If you have questions regarding the infrastructure, tutorials, teaching or projects, please get in contact with Mr Alessandro Tellini.

Group Raplab Responsible Person (GRV)
Each guest studio appoints a group Raplab responsible person within the team. He/she is the contact person for student and Raplab concerns.

Group Safety Responsible Person (GSV)
Each guest studio also appoints a group safety responsible person and reports this to the Safety, Health and Environment Department (SGU) of ETH Zurich. Contact is Mr Pascal Bieger. The group safety responsible person receives further training from ETH and is responsible for the safety concept.

Links: Raplap

Communications

Andres Herzog is the head of communications at D-​ARCH and responsible for the department’s external communications. He oversees the D-​ARCH Magazine, the presence on social media and the newsletter of the department. He advises the professorships on questions about communication. He answers media inquiries in consultation with ETH corporate communications.

Links:

D-ARCH Communications I ETH Corporate Communications

Building orientation

The professorships and research groups of the D-ARCH are located in several buildings at ETH Zurich, and mainly on Hönggerberg campus, and in Zurich Oerlikon.

Links:

Contact I ETH Hönggerberg campus I ETH Zurich Oerlikon I Rauminfo

Welcome events

ETH invites all new professor to ETH Faculty Orientation, led by the Executive Board. It takes place once each semester.

The Rector, Prof. Dr. Günther Dissertori, invites all new professors to give an introductory lecture. The introductory lecture is a tradition at ETH Zurich and offers you the opportunity to make yourself and your research interests known to the school and also to introduce yourself to a wider public. If you have any questions, please contact Ms Andrea Heinzelmann, Academic Services, Information & Planning.

D-ARCH specially welcomes new faculty members at their first Departments Conference and at the Dozentendîner. Please save the date of the first departments conference after your start. It takes place twice a semester and usually in October, December, March and May. The dates are published in the D-ARCH Semester Agenda. The Dozentendîner takes place once a year and usually in May. You will receive a personal invitation.

Links zu verwandten Themen:

New Faculty Orientation I Inaugural Lecture I Departments conference I Agenda