Architecture and Care
Anna Puigjaner takes up professorship
At the beginning of the year, Anna Puigjaner took up her position as Full Professor of Architecture and Care at the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich.
On taking up her post, she commented: “Nowadays, as elsewhere, Swiss society is aging, which directly affects the prevalence of chronic health problems and disabilities while posing a challenge to the sustainability of the care system. This situation requires a redefinition of care and rehabilitation provision, its related spaces, its labour economies and the bodies that provide it.” Her professorship is made possible by generous support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). The objective of her research is to gain an understanding of how the built environment can increase preventive care and reduce costs and the staffing requirement, while offering new forms of social reconciliation and symmetries.
«All of us at SNF are proud to build on our longstanding and multifaceted partnership with ETH Zurich in this new professorship, and we congratulate Professor Puigjaner on her appointment,», said SNF Senior Program Officer Eleni Agouridi. «Architecture factors into our health, our ability to participate in society, the bonds of care we choose to form with one another, and this professorship will provide valuable new insights at a point of societal inflection.»
Inclusive perspective
The ETH Board appointed Puigjaner in May 2022. Born in 1980, she had previously held the position of Associate Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University in New York. The architect is one of four partners in the architectural studio MAIO, based in Barcelona and New York. Anna Puigjaner not only conducts historical research but also carries out fieldwork throughout the world, exploring new forms of communal living in a comprehensive, inclusive manner. She is best known for her research project “Kitchenless City: Architectural Systems for Social Welfare.”
Important synergies
With the appointment of Anna Puigjaner, the ETH Department of Architecture is gaining a future leader in this area of research and embarking on a new era of reflection and action in the field of “architecture and care”. She will also foster important synergies with other departments and institutions.