Embedded in a renowned school of architecture, the gta Archive represents a substantial educational resource. It supports architecture teaching through numerous collaborations – especially within ETH, but also with other schools of architecture in Switzerland and abroad. Additonally, the gta Archive enhances the visibility of its collections with the yearly Archive Seminar, guiding students’ focus works, as well as offering educational tours and tailored research advice.
Teaching
Course
Archival Seminar: Critical Thinking in the Archive
Archival Seminar
Spring Semester 2026, Thursday 16:00–18:00
In the setting of the gta Archive, students will engage in the analysis and discussion of different types of archival materials on specific themes.
The Archive Seminar aims to train students to select, analyse, and evaluate archival items to develop and demonstrate a given hypothesis. Archival items will be annotated with critical descriptions in the form of expanded captions and short written essays. The course fosters subject specific as well as transferable competencies.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
• Differentiate between various archival concepts; discuss the archive’s societal and academic relevance
• Independently identify, discuss, and interpret various types of research evidence
• Systematically select, evaluate, analyse archival material and critically assess its importance as historical evidence
• Order sets of archival evidence to create viable historical narratives
• Develop critical faculties through analysis and argumentation, and develop academic writing skills.
Despite being one of the most significant architectural repositories in Europe, the gta Archive at ETH Zurich is relatively little used by students. It is perceived as either remote from current design concerns, inaccessible, or forbidding. Yet, those who cross its threshold discover a treasure of materials and sources of inspiration that can add much to their research and design skills.
The Archive Seminar aims to unlock the didactic potential of the gta Archive by offering a low-threshold, guided, and mediated access to its contents. It is conceived as a relaxed and safe environment for discovery and discussion. Students will learn how to work with archival material, engage in archival research, formulate critical arguments and use archival evidence to develop short historical narratives. It is made of two parts. In the first, lectures followed by Q&As will familiarise students with archival theories, dilemmas and controversies. In the second, conducted in the archive, students will analyse and critically discuss original archival items. The group of participants will be capped to max. 20 students to allow personal contributions to the discussion and and easy access to the archive.
As the space in the gta Archive is limited, the seminar is restricted to 20 students, although the final number will depend upon demand and applications quality. The weekly contact time will be 2 hours, with circa 3 hours independent working time.
2026