ALICE (Atelier de la Conception de l’Espace)

An active unit of EPFL-ENAC, Prof. Dieter Dietz’s ALICE laboratory pursues research activities that place space as the interface between humans, and technological and built processes. ALICE engages in research through three main vehicles: 1) research through design; 2) interdisciplinary fundamental research; 3) the development and implementation of innovative teaching methodologies at Bachelor and Masters level. ALICE strives for collective, open processes and non-deterministic design methodologies, driven by the will to integrate analytical, data based approaches and design thinking into actual project proposals and holistic scenarios. Research and teaching are conducted in close proximity, in a designresearch perspective. The lab engages in developing and building full-scale, installation-size artefacts, as well as inventing new types of ephemeral structures for social and cultural events. In parallel, fundamental research is conducted by ALICE’s team of scientists and doctoral candidates who pursue inquiries at the meeting point of architecture, urban thinking and social sciences, with the same focus on the human, collectively shared dimension of society and it’s potential in space-making processes. The ALICE team consists of a group of young architects and researchers, scientists and doctoral candidates from Europe and abroad.