Urban Land Use Planning, Design and Policy Research Studio (BALANCE)

I am team leader of the Urban Land Use Planning, Design and Policy Research Studio (BALANCE) I founded at the ETH Wohnforum - ETH CASE at the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich.

We use and further advance the developed GIS analysis instrument to:

(i) investigate past and present urban land use and its modal shares and indicators to measure the walkability of neighbourhoods with a radius of 0.5 km. In addition, we study the containment effect of land use control on housing and its affordability.

(ii) project future land use and design scenarios, estimate future traffic shares and model 4D urban design scenarios for selected neighbourhoods with a radius of 0.5 km as a basis for co-creating long term visions and acceptance for urban transformation towards healthy 10-minute neighbourhoods and parsimonious land use with various stakeholders.

(iii) formulate multi-level and multi-scale policy recommendations for guidance for urban transformation towards the implementation of parsimonious land use and healthy 10-minute neighborhoods.

Projects since 2016

Kurze Wege sind die Zukunft: Jeder Beitrag zählt! (07/2022 - 06/2025) Agora - wo Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft sich begegnen Weitere Informationen werden bald folgen.

President Association (2021 - ongoing) WALK10min

Dense and Green Cities: Zurich Case (2021 - ongoing). FCL Global Zurich Team with Architecture and Building Process (Prof. Sacha Menz (PI), Dr. Michelle Yingying Jiang (coordinator), Nicolo Guariento), ETH Wohnforum - ETH CASE (Dr. Sibylle Wälty, Leonie Pock), Spatial Development and Urban Policy – SPUR (Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann, Dr. Ana Peric), and Chair of Architecture and Urban Transformation (Prof. Freek Persyn, Dr. Seppe De Blust) including various stakeholders City of Zurich.

UrbanVision4D (UV4D) ARGE and Methodology. (2021 - 2022) working group (ARGE) with CONT-S GmbH and application of methodology terminated.

Site development Lugano. (2021). In coorperation with CONT-S GmbH.

Development focus Opfikon (2021). In cooperation with CONT-S GmbH.

Oberstadt+ (2021 - 2022). In cooperation with Monika Greber (Entwicklungsplanung Stadt Baden), Sabrina Contratto (CONT-S GmbH), and for the participatory part Inger Schjold (Frischer Wind) (Frischer Wind) including various social stakeholders.

Revisiting Density (2021 - ongoing) In cooperation with Prof. Dr. Tanja Herdt (TU Delft).

Spatial development concept and revision of building and land use regulations Hünenberg. (2019 - ongoing). In cooperation with CONT-S GmbH.

Spatial development concept and revision of building and land use regulations Dübendorf. (2019 - 2021). In cooperation with CONT-S GmbH.

Development focus Glarus (2020). In cooperation with ONT-S GmbH.

Site development Emmenbrücke. (2019). In coorperation with CONT-S GmbH.

My dissertation: 'Implementing parsimonious land use' (2016-2020) completed within the SNF-Project «How to grow». Supervised by Prof. Dr. Kay W. Axhausen (D-BAUG ETH Zurich) and co-supervision by Prof. Dietmar Eberle (D-ARCH ETH Zurich), Prof. Hubert Klumpner (D-ARCH ETH Zurich) and Prof. Dr. iur. Daniela Thurnherr Keller LL.M. (University of Basel Juristische Fakultät).

SNF-Project No. 162718 «How to grow» (2016-2020). Self acquired and led interdisciplinary project in cooperation with University of Basel Juristische Fakultät and various stakeholders.

Prize

1. Prize (2023) Best-of-Research 2023 10-Minuten-Nachbarschaften: Chance für eine haushälterische Bodennutzung, Zürich, Switzerland, 21. November 2023