Sascha Roesler is an architect and architectural theorist, working at the intersection of architecture, ethnography, and science and technology studies. He is the Associate Professor for Theory of Urbanization and Urban Environments at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, Switzerland (Università della Svizzera Italiana). Between 2013 and 2015, Roesler was a senior researcher at the Future Cities Laboratory (Singapore-ETH Centre for Global Environmental Sustainability), and between 2015 and 2021, had the position of Swiss National Science Foundation Professor for Architecture and Theory (at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio and at ETH Zurich), leading a research project on “Architecture and Urban Climates.” Roesler has published widely on issues of global architecture, sustainability, and environmental technologies. His articles have appeared both in international and national journals such as Architectural Theory Review, Candide – Journal for Architectural Knowledge, ABE Journal – Architecture Beyond Europe, Les Cahiers de la recherche architecturale urbaine et paysagère, Future Cities Magazine, arch+, Stadtbauwelt, Forum Stadt, tec21, werk bauen + wohnen, archithese, Kunst + Architektur in der Schweiz, and NZZ. His books include Weltkonstruktion (Gebr. Mann, 2013), the first global history of architectural ethnography, and Habitat Marocain Documents (Park Books, 2015), a volume on the transformation of a colonial settlement in Casablanca. The latter was awarded the DAM architectural book award in 2016 as one of the year’s ten outstanding architectural publications. More recently Roesler co-edited the anthology “The Urban Microclimate as Artifact” (Birkhäuser, 2018). As designed artifacts, microclimates are part of local material cultures with various ecological, social, and political implications for contemporary cities. Roesler is one of the laureates of the Swiss Art Award for Architecture (2012).

Lydia Xynogala (Dr.sc ETH Zurich) is an architect and scholar, currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Academy of Architecture. She was a doctoral fellow at gta Institute where her dissertation on the construction of a culture of care centered around natural resources in 19th and 20th century Greece, is nominated for the ETH Medal and presented in the exhibition Loutropolis: Mineral Springs and Baths in Greece at gta exhibitions, Zurich. Spanning design and writing, her work draws from material cultures, biogeochemistry and healing modalities to explore relationships between natural and built environments. Featured in publications such as Future Anterior, MIT Thresholds, Log, e-flux architecture, Manifest Journal, Domus, and gta papers, among other journals and book volumes. She previously taught at ETH Zurich, Columbia GSAPP, The Cooper Union, City College NY and RPI. Her architecture practice, ALOS, has been supported by fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Onassis Foundation and with the Greek Architecture Award for best built project by a young architect. Xynogala holds architecture degrees from Princeton University, The Cooper Union, and the Bartlett, UCL and is the founding director of the non-profit association, “Friends of the 750 Mineral Springs of Greece”.

Dr. Lorenzo Stieger is an architect with a research focus in urban design, architectural theory and history. His particular interest lies in subjects such as the physical nature of the environment, its constituting forces and cultural implications, as well as in the conceptual reinterpretation of the existing conditions. He obtained both his architecture diploma (2009) and his PhD entitled “Vom Hang zur Schräge: Das Terrassenhaus in der Schweiz – Aufstieg und Fall einer gefeierten Wohnbautypologie 1958 – 1973” (2018) from ETH Zurich. He worked for several years as an architectural practitioner in different offices in Los Angeles and Zurich before becoming a researcher and co-teacher at the chair for architecture and urban design (A. Lehnerer) based in Singapore and at ETH Zurich. He is now a post-doctoral researcher at the Academy of Architecture of the Università della Svizzera Italiana in Mendrisio, Switzerland.

Noa Levin is a philosopher and cultural theorist working at the intersection between political philosophy and theory, philosophy of history and philosophy of space and environment. She is especially interested in the politics of climate change, and her postdoctoral project at the Academy of Architecture, funded by the Fondo Istituzionale per la Ricerca (FIR), focuses on “Thermal Communities in Times of Climate Crisis”, taking the city of Berlin as its case study. Levin’s PhD was obtained at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University, London. During its final year she was a doctoral fellow at the Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research and the Free University of Berlin. A monograph based on her dissertation, “Origins of Modern Media Theory: Benjamin, Deleuze and the Baroque”, is forthcoming as part of the Walter Benjamin Studies series at Bloomsbury Publishing. Levin holds an MPhil in European Culture and Literature from the University of Cambridge, and a BFA in philosophy and film from Tel Aviv University. She has taught at the Department of Cultural History and Theory at the Humboldt University of Berlin and at Bard College Berlin. An associated researcher at the Centre Marc Bloch, a Franco-German institute of the Humboldt University, she is also on the editorial board of the peer-reviewed journal “Philosophy of Photography” and curates cinematic and cultural events.

Will Davis is an architectural historian interested in how people interact with plants to make buildings. He was recently a at Princeton University, and is an of the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. His writing has appeared in Architectural Theory Review; Southeast of Now; Canadian Centre for Architecture; Platform; among others, and his PhD project, “Palm Politics: Warfare, Folklore, and Architecture” (2021, UCLA) was awarded the  for most outstanding doctoral dissertation in architectural history. He is a Swiss National Science Foundation Ambizione Project Leader for his project  at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, Switzerland.

Image: Sonali Dhanpal

Julian Raffetseder is a researcher and architect specializing in urban climate design. His PhD project at the Accademia di Architettura, supervised by Prof. Dr. Sascha Roesler and Prof. Dr. Or Aleksandrowicz, explores how architectural form can contribute to solar governance in the climate adaptation of a "Subtropical Vienna". The research combines qualitative stakeholder analysis with quantitative solar simulations, investigating solar access in urban regulations, its shifting perception among stakeholders, and potential governance scenarios for climate adaptation.

Julian has presented his research at international conferences, including the Beating the Heat Conference 2023 at ETH Zürich and ICUC 10 in Sydney. His dissertation will be featured in the Swiss Pavilion at EXPO 2025 in Osaka. The research integrates computational tools and climate-responsive design, focusing on interdisciplinary knowledge transfer between policy, design, and climate science.

He holds a Master of Architecture with distinction from the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Studio Kazuyo Sejima) and a Bachelor's degree from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Julian was a university assistant at TU Graz and has worked in architectural offices in Vienna, Hamburg, and London. He consults on urban microclimate design for practices like Pool Architekten, E2A, and Meier Hug, and co-leads Future Problems Architecture Studio in Zürich. Their work received a Special Mention from Europan 17 and the Erste Bank Social Design Prize from Vienna Design Week.

Pina Kalina Haas (she/her) is an interdisciplinary researcher with a BA in Political Sciences and Literature from the Liberal Arts and Sciences University College Utrecht (2020) and a master's in "Changing Societies: Migration – Resources – Conflicts" from the University of Basel (2024). In a semester abroad at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, she studied political science and environmental studies from a Mexican perspective, prompting her interest in decolonial approaches. During her MA, she conducted ethnographic research in Swiss agricultural education and explored approaches to understanding colonial expressions of human/more-than-human relationships in the urban landscape of Basel. Her research integrates feminist, decolonial, and more-than-human perspectives to address how historical and ongoing structures of domination manifest materially and discursively in our built and imaginary environments. Currently, as a PhD candidate under Prof. Dr. Sascha Roesler, she continues to pursue these research interests in her collaboration with Dr. Will Davis in the SNF-funded Ambizione project .

Nadja Moser is an architecture student currently finishing her Master’s degree at the Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio. She completed her Bachelor’s degree at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) in 2020, during which she spent an exchange semester at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in 2019. In fall 2020, she started working at the architecture firm Esch Sintzel in Zurich, where she collaborated on the conversion project Lysbüchel in Basel until the end of 2022. In 2023, she began her master’s degree in Mendrisio, where she took part in Prof. Roesler’s spring seminar “City, Climate and Architecture”. From fall 2023 she started working as a student assistant at the chair.

Emanuele Cipolla is a final-year Master’s student in architecture at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio. He previously earned his Bachelor’s degree from the same institution in July 2023. During his undergraduate studies, he worked for 12 months at the architecture firm BIG in Copenhagen, where he was involved in various architectural projects. In 2023, he attended the seminar "City, Climate, and Architecture: The Climate Adaptation Lab," held by Professor Sascha Roesler, which deepened his understanding of the relationship between urban environments and climate challenges. Since then, he has been actively working as a student assistant, collaborating with the chair and its team.

He is currently pursuing his Master’s degree in architecture at the Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio, where he also completed his Bachelor’s degree in 2024. During his third academic year, he worked at the architecture office B-ILD in Brussels, gaining practical experience in a range of architectural projects. As part of his academic engagement at the Accademia, he participated in the spring seminar “City, Climate and Architecture” as well as the autumn seminar “Future Energy Landscapes,” both led by Professor Sascha Roesler. These seminars sharpened his interest in climate-responsive design strategies. Since February 2025, he has been working as a student assistant at the chair, actively supporting research, exhibitions, and academic activities related to climate adaptation in the built environment.

Silvia Balzan, 2023-2024
Maria Trombetta, 2022-2023
Stéphanie Hegelbach, 2021
Prof. Dr. Madlen Kobi, 2016-2021
Dr. Lionel Epiney, 2016-2021
Dr. Dalila Ghodbane, 2015-2019
Tareq Tamimi, 2019-2021
Laura Bonalume, 2017-2018
Zhe Dong, 2017
Lei Zhang, 2016-2017
Juliette Blatter, 2016