Welcome Information for New Visiting Faculty

Getting started at ETH Zurich

As new visiting professor or guest lecturer you will receive several information from various ETH Staff Units and from the Administrative Department, e.g. Head of the Institute, Host Professor, Study Administration or Finance and Controlling Office. 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 mentor, the contacts for your start at D-ARCH and/or Davina Kieber Hitzler (Deputy Coordinator D-​ARCH).

Links:

ETH Information for Guests

Our Department

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

Since August 1, 2023, the current 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

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.

Links:

Diversity and Inclusion I Living respect I Code of Conduct Respect I protected page D-​ARCH Code of Conduct

Compliance Guide

The Compliance Guide 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 everyday life.

Links:

Download Compliance Guide I Compliance

Governance and decision-making

Decision-​making within D-​ARCH is done in different bodies (conferences, comissions or committees). The most senior body of the department is the Department Conference (DK). It is composed of the representatives of all university groups (Hochschulgruppen, Stände): professors and a representative of the further teaching faculty; scientific staff (Mittelbau), students, as well as technical and administrative staff.

As visiting faculty (either visiting professor or visiting lecturer) you will be invited to the Departments Conference (DK) as a guest (without voting right). 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 further 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)
Admission Committee (ZulA)
Grading Conference (NK)
Parity-​ and Diversity Commission (PDK)

All the tasks and compositions of the different committees can be found in the bylaws (D-​ARCH Geschäftsordnung). For questions regarding above-mentioned committees please contact Ms Davina Kieber Hitzler.

Links:

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

Teaching

D-​ARCH offers study programs as follows: BSc/MSc Architecture, MSc Landscape Architecture, MSc Integrated Building Systems. The structure and curricula are based on the study regulation. Teaching activities are 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 studios (Entwurfsklassen), seminar weeks and the master thesis are organized, in a first step, by the internal semester enrolments. Programs are submitted in advance by the registred chair or visiting faculty. More information about these formats, procedures and agenda are available online: guest lecturers in design, semester enrolment and agenda internal enrolments.

Teaching Assignments
Teaching activities are based on teaching assigment for courses. The application for the teaching assignment is usually prepared 4 - 6 months before the start of the semester and in coordination with the guest lecturer, the inviting institute/host professor and the head of the Student Administration Office. Contact for questions about the process and dates/deadlines is Mr Rudolf Krieg. Further information on the process, compensation and legal bases is available online (Teaching assignments).

Visiting professors do not need a teaching assignment for offerring courses.  

Links:

Study Administration Office I Study programs I Curriculum I Legal basis bachelor and master I Course catalogue I Semester enrolment I Agenda internal enrolment I Guidelines for lecturers I Guest lecturers in design I Teaching assignments

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 educational development at D-ARCH. She provides support to lecturers and coordinates developments within degree programmes in cooperation with Unit for Teaching and Learning (UTL). She is familiar with best-​practice scenarios, current educational technologies, services and instruments for teaching development.  

Links:

D-ARCH Educational Development I ETH Unit for Teaching and Learning

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:

Research ETH Zurich I Research D-ARCH I Strategic action areas I Research funding

Finances, Employment

If you have questions about finances and/or controlling please contact Ms Lisa Giordano. 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.  

Links:

Controlling Finance HR I Recruitment I Employment

IT Services

The department offers different 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 any questions on IT topics, please contact Serge Bilgeri, Head of the IT Services Group at D-ARCH, or visit the Service Desk in HIL C 37.

Link:

IT Services 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 model-making and prototyping infrastructure for tutorials, teaching or projects, please get in contact with Mr Alessandro Tellini.

Group Raplab responsible person (GRV)
One person per professorship or group of visiting faculty should be named as GRV and be the contact person for student and Raplab concerns.

Group Security Responsible person (GSV)
Each professorship must appoint a GSV and register with the SGU > Pascal Bieger. This person receives further training from ETH and is responsible for the security concept.

Link: Raplab

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 of the D-​ARCH are located in several buildings, mainly on Hönggerberg campus, and in Zurich Oerlikon.

Links:

Contact I Getting to the campus I My rooms

Welcome events

There is an introductory meeting for new faculty guests before the semester starts. It is the chance to get to known the other new faculty guests and to learn more about best practices, especially in teaching, and for a general exchange about open questions in relation to your stay at D-ARCH.

D-​ARCH welcomes new visiting faculty at the first Department Conference of semester and at the yearly Dozentendîner. Please save the date of the first departments conference after your start. It takes place twice a semester and usually in October and December (fall semester), and in March and May (spring semester). 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:

Departments conference I Agenda