Architecture for Human Environment with Smart Technologies 2026-2027

Swiss-Korean Academic Exchange Programme for master students of EPFL, HEIA-FR and Unifr: Study of the synergy of architectural design, human factors, and technologies in the office buildings and their combined effect on the indoor environmental quality and human-building interaction in the context of the local culture and architecture in the post pandemic era.

The strong traditions, use of advanced technologies and direction towards a sustainable society, that Switzerland and South Korea share, pave the way to the international cooperation between two countries to raise awareness about urbanism and related social issues and facilitate solutions inspired by different cultures and policies.

Through the collaborative work of Swiss and Korean academicians and students from different disciplines, the ARC-HEST programme aims to comprehensively study the working environment in each country in conjunction with the local culture and architecture

The 4th edition of the ARC-HEST joint pedagogical programme in the framework of two-week long Exchange Schools, a Summer School 2026 in Switzerland and Winter School 2027 in South Korea, offers lectures, workshops, and studios. The essential part of each Exchange School is the visit of 3 case study buildings by students and the analysis of the current state of the building design, operation, indoor comfort, occupant’s satisfaction, and behavior by different student groups. The main task of the student groups is to design a building assessment method, and to collect, process and evaluate data from the existing buildings. Based on the findings, the groups developed innovative solutions for the improvement of the built indoor environment, the satisfaction of the occupants with the building, and human-building interaction in the context of the diversity of occupants and architectural design across Switzerland and South Korea.

This ARC-HEST edition, titled "(N)ON - Material Atmospheres", focuses on the "interaction between architecture materiality and atmosphere". By analyzing the engenderment relationship between the materiality and atmosphere, the groups revisit the essential questions of "What are the fundamentals elements of architecture." The student groups will study the effects of diverse materials on indoor performance measures and create prototypes of the resulting fictional space atmospheres during the Summer Workshop in 17 – 28 August, 2026. During the Winter Workshop in 25 January – 5 February, 2027, the participants will have the opportunity to join the real building case studies for ideation of how the fictional atmospheres of an actual space impacts their materiality.

Each Exchange School involved a total of selected 30 students equally shared between 2 countries; the students were committed to participating in both Exchange Schools and had good communication and written English. Each country coordinated the selection of students that applied at the three individual universities. However, the trans-disciplinary approach was identified as the fundamental element for the generation of innovative solutions applied to the built environment within the framework of this exchange programme. Therefore, the common selection guidance was to aim for an interdisciplinary mix of excellent students.

Targeted Outcomes

• Establishment of the long-term cooperation programme between the partners, facilitate the exchange of ideas among students and enhance creativity.
• Increased mutual knowledge of Swiss and Korean cultures and traditions in architecture, engineering, and technology.
• Reinforced Swiss scientific and cultural presence in the fields of architecture and construction in East-Asia and vice versa.
• Dissemination of the results of the two Exchange Schools - production of the short video and publication of the illustrated book based on the contribution of students.
• Joint research topics originated from the meeting of different competencies among the academicians of the universities involved in the programme.
• Long-term research cooperation and scientific publications as a result of the joint research.

ECTS Credits

The programme is equivalent to a semester project and offers 4 ECTS for Master students at EPFL (ENAC), 5 ECTS for Master students at Unifr, 6 ECTS for Master students at HEIA-FR.