Care Core

The project began with Deaf President Now! (2025), a film documenting the 1988 protests at Gallaudet University. What emerged from the film was the active role architecture played in enabling collective action. Visibility was not only symbolic but operational: people needed to see each other in order to communicate, organize, and act collectively. This observation led to a broader question: how does spatial organization influence participation and collective life within institutions?

The project explores this question through the Architecture Department at ETH Zürich. Following its move from the city center to the Hönggerberg campus in 1969, the department gained space but became increasingly isolated. Compartmentalized studios, corridor-based circulation, and a reflective façade contributed to an inward-oriented condition disconnected from campus life.

The proposal responds by transforming the HIL building into a more permeable and accessible environment. Operable façade panels expose activity within the former library spaces, making everyday occupation visible from the campus and encouraging participation.

The original spiral staircase is relocated to the exterior, turning circulation into a visible public element and reducing the institutional threshold of the department.

A shared amphitheater on the ground floor and open collective spaces above support studying, exhibitions, informal gatherings, and everyday use. Rather than creating a singular event space, the project proposes an architecture of continuous occupation that reconnects the department with the collective life of the campus.

Master Thesis Spring 2026

Project by: Katarzyna Stachnio Teaching Team: Anna Puigjaner, Pol Esteve Castelló, He Shen 何珅, Ethel Baraona Pohl, Lisa Maillard, Paule Perron, Valentina Noce. In Collaboration with Guillaume Habert and He Yufei (BUK).

Images 1, 2, 6, 7, 8: Luís Úrculo