The master thesis program set out to explore how writing and narrating histories shapes the way we perceive and transform our built environment. Taking infrastructure as its central lens, the studio questioned how large-scale structures – often defined by a single function – carry stories, meanings, and potentials that far exceed their original purpose. By confronting infrastructure with the notion of the monument, students investigated what happens when both are read, edited, and reinterpreted through the same narrative tools.

The site of inquiry was the Rhine as it flows through Cologne, focusing on the Cologne Cathedral and its immediate neighbour Cologne Central Station. This dense intersection of river, railway, and landmark architecture became a testing ground to rethink the European city through its layered histories and infrastructures. Each student paired this focal point with a second site along the Rhine, constructing comparative readings across scales.

Rather than proposing solutions, the program emphasized question-making as a design method. By combining storytelling with digital architectural tools, the studio reframed students as both historians and designers – positioned to uncover latent futures within the existing city.

[Supervision] Prof. Freek Persyn, Prof. Dr. Maarten Delbeke, Dr. Falma Fshazi, Dr. Cara Rachele

Master Theses

Master Thesis Cologne – Monument and Infrastructure

Engagements

For the master thesis in spring 2021 we followed the Triemlifussweg. Coming from the city center, it passes through the open and green landscape of Friedhof Sihlfeld, flanked by large housing settlements from the 1970s, and leads up to Triemli Square at the foot of Uetliberg. If one zooms out, the path can be perceived as forming an axis together with Hardbrücke and Rosengartenstrasse, connecting Käferberg and Zürichberg with Uetliberg across the Limmat Valley.

The Triemlifussweg itself has the spatial character of a street. Indeed, it was originally reserved as a plot for an urban highway, the Luzernerstrasse, intended to connect Albisriederplatz with Triemli Square.

This almost accidental condition gives the space its distinct quality: it was never planned as what it is today. Its ambivalent status invites exploration across scales. At the same time, it is embedded in broader processes of urban transformation. In recent years, several points along the described axis, like Escher-Wyss-Platz and Hardplatz have been redesigned as public spaces. Along the Triemlifussweg, buildings from the 1970s are currently being replaced by “Ersatzneubauten.”

We therefore ask: How can the Triemlifussweg be rethought as “adaptive infrastructure”

an infrastructure capable of absorbing and supporting social, ecological, and spatial change? How can it be transformed without losing its charm? And how might its qualities as an unplanned zone provide the environment for imagining more resilient urban patterns?

To get started, students were introduced to different actors who provided precise entry points into the topic, leading to a design in dialogue with the perspectives they offer on a Triemlifussweg in transition.

[Studio Team] Seppe De Blust, Lukas Fink, Charlotte Schaeben

Master Thesis Triemlifussweg – Adaptive Infrastructure

The exhibition “The Things Around Us” at the 

 (CCA) in Montreal brought together the work of 

 (RUF) from Hong Kong. Both practices engage with sites of urban transition and transformation, operating through multiple forms of collaboration and dialogue.

Curated by Francesco Garutti, the exhibition highlighted a shared ambition to expand the operational radius of architecture, particularly where rigid planning procedures have long ceased to function as effective modes of instigating and moderating change.

NEWROPE, equally committed to testing collaborative forms of learning, design, and research at ETH Zurich, contributed several samples of studio work to the exhibition. Alongside photographs of the 

a tent-like structure made of thick cloth suspended from the ceiling to create an intimate space – were presented. Both were designed for the studio space in Zurich Oerlikon by 

These expressions of what we call “Design in Dialogue” encountered kindred objects representing the work of Rural Urban Framework, such as a felt rug and wooden stools commonly used in rural China.

[Place] CCA Canadian Centre for Architecture

The Things Around Us, CCA

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