ZUR
ETH World Zürich
2-Phase International Competition for a new Corporate Identity for the ETH Zürich, Switzerland
We are writing the year 2000 - pre-Facebook, pre-Youtube, pre-Twitter, pre-Canvas, and, more importantly, pre-Smartphone and Tablets....
The creation of virtual teaching and research worlds is equally in its infancy as the endeavors to form coherent groups, which mainly cooperate via the Internet.
Nevertheless, it is already possible to draw upon initial experiences. The most important, concerning the ETH World competition project, are:
- The formation of a community in virtual space requires the support of active man-to-man interfaces
- For many forms of knowledge transmission, a human makes sense as a contact partner. That person must have specialist training and be competent. In addition to a high degree of availability, the support should also have an interdisciplinary approach.
- Online teaching and online research (like every form of complex group work) is impossible without direct group contacts in “real” meeting places.
Awards
Sixth price in competition
Concept
Based on above line items, the design deduced that the information building ETH World should be created (and developed further) with an equal balance through the creation of virtual and real infrastructure. The project's focus was, therefore, on the balance between architecture and design of real space, on the one hand, as well as the design of virtual space and the web design, on the other.
A virtual campus ETH World can only succeed if interfaces from person to person are created. This led to the proposal of a totally new institution, the “Interfacing Forum”. It was meant to be the interface between the virtual and real worlds, having its roots equally in both worlds.
The visual and functional components of the virtual campus find their physical counterparts everywhere. As on the central building through an online-controlled LED banner or through the interactive reception desk in the main building, where visitors can log in and inform themselves about events online and contact partners.
Project Blackboard:
Competition: 2000
Size: 250,000 SF
Site Development, Architecture, Interface Development: Atelier Jörg Rügemer with ag4 Media Company, Cologne, Germany
Client: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Photo credits: Atelier Jörg Rügemer with ag4 Media Company
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