News

The International Conference on Resilient Systems (ICRS 2026), recently hosted at the Delft University of Technology, has recognized Wei Bi of Prof. Bryan Adey's Chair of Infrastructure Management at ETH Zurich for her outstanding contribution to the field of infrastructure resilience.

The Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geomatic Engineering at ETH Zurich remains among the top institutions worldwide: in the latest QS World University Rankings 2026, it is ranked fourth in Civil & Structural Engineering, following several years of steady progress in the field.

Prof. Dr. Bryan T. Adey's Chair of Infrastructure Management is pleased to announce that the article “Enhancing project planning with virtual reality and game engines” by Emmanouil Katsimpalis was published in the journal Infrastructure Asset Management.

The event is the largest event for “urban change-makers” in Europe 

Are you interested in the Future of Sustainable Construction? Then don't miss out on the latest edition of our open lecture series «Re-/Source the BuiltEnvironment» starting on February 16th!

On 9 February 2026, Raphael Kuhn successfully defended his doctoral thesis with the title:"MgO-silicate cement as stabilizer for clay-based construction materials"  Congratulations to him!

Sarah Planchamp is a Ph.D student at the Chair of Sustainable Construction since February 2026.

Prof. Dr. Bryan T. Adey's Chair of Infrastructure Management is pleased to announce that the article “Mapping cycling-specific infrastructure using object detection on remotely sensed images", by Dr. David Zani and Sebastiano Papini was published in the journal Transportation. 

Researchers shared their research developments at the NEST building

Julie Assunção was invited to be the keynote speaker at the «3DP of Construction Materials: Environmental and Scientific Challenges» conference in Paris in December, presenting with the title «Can Digital Fabrication Meet Low-Carbon Materials?»

Prof. Bryan T. Adey's Chair of Infrastructure Management would like to thank lecturer Jeffrey Hoffman for his many years of teaching at ETH Zurich and his commitment to teaching important theoretical and practical skills to students. His legendary Skyrail practical project will be fondly remembered by students and ETH staff alike.

Vanessa Costalonga is an Architect specialising in Computational Design, Digital Fabrication, and Material Research in Architecture

Ana Bendiek Laranjo joined the Chair of Circular Engineering for Architecture as PhD Student in December. She will work on the hybrid PhD with the Urban Energy Systems Lab at Empa

PhD student Orlando Román García and Dr. Qiming Ye from Prof. Bryan Adey's Chair of Infrastructure Management and the Future Cities Laboratory Global published an article in the Netzwerk Stadt und Landschaft (NSL), ETH Zürich December’s newsletter on Resilient Urban Systems.

Guillaume Habert discusses the future of construction in the «Circular Metabolism» podcast.

The students of the D-BAUG have awarded this year's «Golden Owl» to lecturer Dr Stefan Moser for his many years of outstanding engagement.

How can the construction industry improve its carbon footprint to net zero by 2050? What contributions can digital solutions make? These questions are central to the new lighthouse project of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at ETH Zurich. The aim is to develop a spatial computing platform to accelerate the transition for a more efficient and environmentally friendly construction industry. The interdisciplinary project is funded by the Albert Lück Foundation.

Prof. Bryan T. Adey's Chair of Infrastructure Management congratulates PhD students Hamed Mehranfahr and Steven Chuo on the publication of the article "Automated early estimation of bridge interventions, possession windows and costs” in the Journal of Infrastructure Asset Management!  

On 23 November 2022, the Kick-off Symposium dedicated to the D-BAUG lighthouse project "E-Bike City" took place. More than 150 participants attended the event and contributed to a lively discussion following the input talks by speakers from practice and research. We are delighted to share with you the video recordings of the talks and discussion.

The CEA Lab is featured in the article "Weniger ist mehr, auch beim Bauen" in the "Sustainable Switzerland" magazine

HOFFNUNG? HOFFNUNG! The upcoming event that translates as HOPE? HOPE! encourages a deeper understanding of hope as an intrinsically human state of mind and as a fundamental driving force

Prof. Carl Haas from the University of Waterloo, Canada joins the Infrastructure Management Chair of Prof. Bryan T. Adey at the Institute of Construction and Infrastructure Management as a guest professor for 6 months.  

Prof Bryan Adey's Chair of Infrastructure Management congratulates Dr. Qian Chen and Marco Zumstein on the publication of the article "A preliminary investigation of the potential benefits of using the ASTRA Bridge for short-span bridge deck refurbishment projects in Switzerland" in the journal Structure and Infrastructure Engineering!

Published in August, the paper "Rapid 3D Quality Control in Prefabrication Using a 3D Digital-Templates Framework " by co-author Steven Chuo, a PhD student in Prof. Bryan Adey's Chair of Infrastructure Management, was selected for the Editor's Choice Collection by the journal Construction Engineering and Management.

Beril Önalan joined the Chair Circular Engineering for Architecture in December. She will be looking into digital innovation for circularity in the field of digital fabrication and how to link digitally fabricated buildings to circular economy principles

Hamed Mehranfahr will present online at the VISIM (Virtual Inter-University Symposium on Infrastructure Management) session of this year's Autumn 2022 programme on Friday 2 December at 12pm USET (6pm CEST).

"Is Additive Manufacturing a sustainable or just a novel construction technique?"

The first meeting of protagonists in reuse of building components took place at ETH Zurich. The CEA lab invited all reuse stakeholders and brought them together to informally meet and exchange ideas. We are thrilled how many people attended this hybrid event! We can now form a network, we know where each one positions themselves and what the challenges are for a circular built environment. Together we can move forward and support each other. We want to continue this conversation in 2022!

The paper «Investing in water supply resilience considering uncertainty and management flexibility” by Claudio Martani, Jürgen Hackl and Prof. Bryan T. Adey was published in the journal Smart Infrastructure and Construction.

The paper «Data-driven estimation of deterioration curves: a railway supporting structures case study” by Saviz Moghtadernejad, Gérald Huber, Jürgen Hackl and Prof. Bryan T. Adey was published in the journal Infrastructure Asset Management.

Prof. Catherine De Wolf's intervention at the SIA reuse day, where she was invited to give a talk on digital platforms used in other countries to facilitate the reuse of building materials, was mentioned in the Espazium magazine.

Prof. Dr. Alice Alipour, Guest Professor at the Chair of Infrastructure Management of Prof. Dr. Bryan T. Adey, gave a presentation on 30 November on the topic: "Toward the next generation of resilient infrastructures: A new balance between ex-ante and ex-post decisions".

Jiachen Shi joins the Chair of Infrastructure Management for one year.

Together with EMPA, the Chair of Circular Engineering for Architecture are looking for 1 Postdoc and 1 PhD student in data for circular buildings.

Prof. Catherine De Wolf was invited by the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA) to give a talk on digital platforms used in other countries to facilitate the reuse of building materials as well as to participate in a panel discussion on the state of research on reuse at ETH Zurich and EPFL with Prof. Corentin Fivet and Anna Hohler.

Prof. Dr. Alice Alipour, Visiting Professor at the Chair of Infrastructure Management of Prof. Dr. Bryan T. Adey, will give a presentation on 30 November, 17:00 - 18:00 at ETH Zürich Hönggerberg, on the topic: "Toward the next generation of resilient infrastructures: A new balance between ex-ante and ex-post decisions". The presentation can be followed online via live stream.

On the 10^th of December at the University of San Paolo, Alina Galimshina presented the design integrated parametric LCA tool Bombyx developed by the Chair of Sustainable Construction.

Alina Galimshina presented the tool for parametric real-time LCA that has been developed at the Chair for the architectural students in KADK.

Guillaume Habert presented at the ETH Treffpunkt Science City possibilities for climate neutral buildings.

Saviz Moghtadernejad and Marcel Burkhalter hold presentations at the Joint International Resilience Conference that is currently running online.

Check out our latest contributions 

The former administration building of the Zürcher Kantonalbank in Dübendorf is only 27 years old - now it is being torn down. Interview with Prof. Dr. Guillaume Habert, professor for Sustainable Construction at ETH Zurich.

On November 12th, our doctoral student Qian Chen at the Chair of Infrastructure Management successfully defended her thesis - A systematic approach to enabling digital supply chain coordination in construction projects. 

At the IBI awards ceremony on 11 November at the Institute for Construction and Infrastructure Management, ETH Zurich's "Bau- und Infrastruktur-Förderungspreis" and the Helbling Prize were awarded to students for their excellent Master's theses.

Orlando Roman Garcia graduated in Civil Engineering at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru (BSc) and in Engineering for Sustainable Development at the University of Cambridge (MPhil). His master thesis focused on long-term infrastructure planning for Saint Lucia and contributed to a recently published National Infrastructure Assessment for the island by UNOPS.

The Institute of Construction and Infrastructure Management has awarded Doctoral and Master Thesis with the Bau und Infrastruktur-Förderungspreis der ETH Zürich as well as the Helbling Prize for an excellent Master Thesis during a ceremony on 22 October 2019.

Dr. Claudio Martani and Prof. Dr. Bryan T. Adey wrote a new article which has been published on the NSL Homepage.

A real-time parametric tool for LCA was presented for the first time to the public at SBE19 Graz conference, and was received with great interest and attention.

Today’s new buildings could easily last until 2050 and beyond. That's why we now need binding climate targets in the construction sector, argues Guillaume Habert.

Dr. Jürgen Hack. presented his PhD thesis on „Natural Hazards and Infrastructure Systems, “ on the 10 October 2019.

Researchers, supervisors, partner organisations and the management team of SULTAN had their second network wide event in Freiberg.

We warmly invite you to the opening of the exhibition at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal and launch of the book „Contemporary architecture in Fibre and biobased materials“, where the ETH Chair of Sustainable Construction participated in the environmental impact calculation.

It is time to go beyond sustainability. Alternative solutions out of local resources such as earth, bio-based and reused materials are emerging all over the world and are triggering regenerative output, thanks to their capacity to contribute to the restoration and improvement of the surrounding natural and social environment. However, they are not widespread in the construction sector due to lack of information on the side of decision makers and lack of competence on the side of practitioners.

Dr. Claudio Martani attended the ICSIC Conference in Cambridge, U.K. from 08-10 July 2019 and presented the new paper on the New Pet Centre of the University Hospital of Zurich.

Isolda Agustí Juan presented her PhD thesis on „Sustainability Assessment & Development of Guidelines for Digital Fabrication in Construction“ on the 22nd of October 2018. The Presentation was recorded and can be watched here:  

On the 13th of September 2018, Gnanli Landrou successfully defended his PHD thesis on „Development of Self-Compacting Clay Concrete“. Congratulations from all of us!  

Prof. Dr. Carl Haas from University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and guest professor at our institute gave a presentation on “The Future of Construction Technology in North America”.

Conducted by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ), Zürich, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne and commissioned by the European Climate Foundation, this report investigates the practices and technologies that can be implemented to significantly reduce CO2 emissions from the cement and concrete sector in Europe by 2050.

Prof. Dr. Adey presented his paper Consideration of Sustainability in the Management of Structures at The Structural Design Day in Goetheborg, Sweden on 27 November 2017.

On the 23rd of November, Isolda Agustí Juan gave a lecture to the students of the "Máster Universitario en Innovación en Arquitectura: Tecnología y Diseño"from the University of Sevilla in Spain. The lecture with title "Identificación de criterios de diseño ambiental para fabricación digital" aimed to raise awareness about the environmental opportunities and risks of digital fabrication techniques in the building sector.

The Migros Umweltpreis – for the promotion of innovative achievements of students – was awarded on the 6th of October 2017 to Felix Krause for his Master Thesis „Dynamic and Traditional Life Cycle Assessment of a “zero carbon” Wall Element“.

The Institute of Construction and Infrastructure Management has awarded Doctoral and Master Thesis as well as the Helbling Prize for an excellent Master Thesis during a ceremony on 26 October 2017.

The joint project team “Low energy concrete” (original title “Concrete Solutions”) under NRP 70 led by Prof. Guillaume Habert met its external partners and discussed potential barriers and future implementation of targeted technologies in the market.

In 2016 the Chair of Sustainable Construction in collaboration with the D-USYS Transdisciplinary Lab and Amàco successfully conducted the summer school (block course) Grounded Materials 2016. Giulia Celentano has documented Grounded Materials and created a movie.

On November 23rd, Dimitra Ioannidou participated in a meeting with stakeholders from the stone industry at the Centre Technique des Matériaux Naturels de Construction, in Paris. The goal of the meeting was to promote the use of stone in construction in the framework of meeting also the sustainability targets of COP21.

The chair of Sustainable construction and the LESBAT from Yverdon les bains (HES-SO) taught from the 7th to the 11th of November an atelier on sustainable habitats for Sahelian context in Burkina Faso.

The Chair of Sustainable Construction proposed a one day workshop for the Student of the MAS digital fabrication at the Migros Museum. The student from the MAS learned about resources and sustainability concepts and they experimented the use of alternative materials in a grounded context.

Jürgen Hackl has been awarded the prize "best presentation" for his presentation "Stochastic spatial-temporal network modeling for infrastructure systems: An introduction" at the event Meet & Share Your Research at D-BAUG.