The succession of Roberto Gargiani at EPFL in Lausanne [École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne] ignited a polemic about the role of history in architecture teaching. From the comfort of their personal environments noted theorists/historians Jean-Louis Cohen, Fabrizio Gallanti, Françoise Fromonot and Philip Ursprung talk about the prospects and relevance of history in architectural education. 

Taking the Country’s Side is an exhibition exploring “the complex relationship between architecture and agriculture over the past 10,000 years.” Curator Stéphane Marot's position may be comparable with the one Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley developed in their Istanbul Design Biennial for Are We Human? show, exploring 200,000 years of design. Design is not something new but deeply human and therefore present from day 1 of human’s presence on Earth. Christophe Catsaros sat with Sébastien Marot to discuss the contexts of this exhibition, the concerns and problems it shows and the message of hope it ends with.

The question of the colonial/postcolonial heritage is complicated in the case of Bangladesh for a simple reason. After the British rule ended we had to deal with the Pakistan – Indian split, and this is more determining for our present condition.

In the Archizoom gallery of the EPFL, Lausanne, this fall ‘Faraway So Close’ is on show, presenting the work of Kashef Chowdhury. Christophe Catsaros sat with its curator, Niklaus Graber to discuss the relevance of this work and subject.

In the Western imagination, Bangladesh is more likely to conjure up images of human and environmental disasters than of quality tropical architecture. Two years ago, the Rohingya exodus was just another in a long list of catastrophes that had punctuated the history of a country with a population greater than that of Russia and a land area barely larger than that of Greece.