Architecture is a material practice, learnt from project to project through knowledge gained from actual buildings.

In this keynote lecture, Stephan Sintzel will trace the philosophy of the practices he has founded, Esch Sintzel and Studio Sintzel, presenting a number of architectural projects including a recent competition win for the Storchen housing project at Oetwil am See near Zurich.

The practice constantly refines their stance based on key moments in their projects that generate insight and act as impulses for further work. They view each new building as an opportunity to integrate fresh understandings of essential and timely issues, from resource-saving construction approaches to matters of social cohesion.

The studio's projects are developed from their spatial context and situation, with each being driven by a narrative that informs across scales, from the detail to the wider environment. The apartment building has always been a core theme, with their volumes providing a framework for exploring the spatial ideas of individual dwellings and extending into an engagement with the challenges of outdoor space and broader planning issues. Ultimately, it is not these volumes themselves that are most formative and impactful, but the exterior collective spaces they come to define.

Stephan Sintzel formed his own practice, Studio Sintzel, in 2024, after a decade and a half beginning 2008 as founding partner of Esch Sintzel, together with Phillipp Esch and, later, Marco Rickenbacher. Having trained at the Technikum in Winterthur, ETH in Zurich, and Columbia University in New York, Stephan worked early in his career with Frank Zierau in Zurich and Buol und Zünd in Basel. Both with his current studio and its forebear, Stephan’s work has been recognized for its spatial richness, attention to detail and setting, and its capacity to transform its surroundings.

This event will take place in person in the AA Lecture Hall and will also be live-streamed here.

You can also watch the Housing and Urbanism Jury from 10am here.