Date: 04 February, 2026
Type: Reflections
Medium: Books

Working on Transformation

The publication “Working on Transformation” documents and systematises the teaching experiments, undertaken at NEWROPE over the past six years.

It grew out of lived experiences, such as student projects, research initiatives, travels, and encounters, that took place at the Chair of Architecture and Urban Transformation at ETH Zürich. The book is organised around four verbs – ‘to project’, ‘to experience’, ‘to sequence’, and ‘to activate’ – each representing both a learning strategy and an approach to expand the boundaries of architecture and urban transformation. It offers approaches, attitudes, and possible actions, inviting readers to imagine and implement alternative scripts, and to connect with people and environments in ways that open up space for change. The book is designed to be held close, carried around, and frequently referenced as a habitual working companion to address complex contemporary challenges.

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“WORKING ON TRANSFORMATION means engaging in exploration, navigating friction, and sharing collective moments of learning. This book is a companion for that investigation. It offers approaches, attitudes, and possible actions, inviting you to imagine and implement alternative scripts, and to connect with people and environments in ways that open up space for change. The book grew out of lived experiences—student projects, research initiatives, travels, and encounters that took place over the past six years at the Chair of Architecture and Urban Transformation at ETH Zürich. It is organised around four verbs, each representing both a learning strategy as well as an approach to expand the boundaries of architecture and urban transformation. While these verbs themselves are not new, we have learned that by committing to them explicitly, the depth and range of practice can be drastically expanded. Expansion here does not mean simply adding new elements, but reconfiguring established patterns and questioning the certainties that are deeply ingrained in the discipline. We see pedagogy as both a space for experimentation within the school and as an integral part of professional practice. Therefore, each verb features twice: to recount concrete experiences, and to reenact those same experiences as a living diagram. This reenactment is intentionally abstract—as an invitation to imagine your own models, your own ways of acting. Rather than providing a step-by-step manual, this companion offers these verbs as prompts. They become an open framework—meant for students and practitioners to appropriate, to experiment with, and to expand upon. In doing so, we hope you, dear reader, will find your own way to learn and transform, with and from others.

1) To Project: Understanding and reinterpreting reality

2) To Experience: Being fully present with all senses

3) To Sequence: Fostering relationships and building trust

4) To Activate: Designing through moments and sparks”