Video of Freek Persyn's Inaugural Lecture

On the 20th of October 2021 the main auditorium of ETH Zurich served as the setting for the inaugural lecture of Prof. Freek Persyn, who was appointed as Full Professor of Architecture and Urban Transformation in 2019 and has been heading the NEWROPE Chair since then.

Due to COVID-related restrictions this official ceremony was delayed and was combined with the inaugural lecture of Prof. Dr. Silke Langenberg, who became Full Professor for Construction Heritage and Preservation at the Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich in August 2020.

During his lecture, titled 'Wouldn’t it be nice if architects started dreaming about building less?', Freek Persyn talked about his professional background and the inspiration and future plans for the NEWROPE Chair, including the work of people like Christopher Alexander, Marc Angélil and Barbara Buser and the Chair's key concepts and ambitions for the coming years.

Both newly appointed Professors were introduced by Prof. Tom Emerson, professor of architecture and Dean of the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich. His introduction was followed by a series of collective sensing exercises, developed and directed by the students of Studio Seebach - Sensing Space with the help of Manuela Runge, a Zurich based theater and dance maker.

You can watch the documentation of the entire event here:

To only watch the lectures you can click on the following links:

Inaugural lecture Freek Persyn

Inaugural lecture Silke Langenberg

Still from video documentation inaugural lecture Prof. Freek Persyn

1/10

– Event: inuaugural lectures Prof. Freek Persyn and Prof. Dr. Silke Langenberg.
– Date: Wednesday, 20th October 2021, 17:15 – 18:15
– Location: ETH Zurich Main Building, Audi Max (HG F 30)
– Art direction lecture Freek Persyn: OK-RM London
– With: Tom Emerson, Linus Arnold, Jan Bauer, Olivia Beeler, Yannick Blattner, Annick Bächle, Selin Civi, Rita Engelberger, Charis Gersl, Elena Geser, Senga Grossmann, Fiona Hatz, Elif Isikli, Tabea Meienhofer, Max Meier, Carolina Palos Mas, Alessandro Paterniti Barbino, Roxana Puiu, Tanja Reichmuth, Jakob Schaefermeyer, Gereon Siévi, Sofia Uribe Gomez, Sarah Vogel, Fiona Wiesner, Virginia Zaretskie, Theresa Zuhr and Manuela Runge