Marc Angélil

Professor Emeritus of Architecture & Design, ETH Zurich; Senior Advisor, agps.architecture, Switzerland

Marc Angélil is Professor Emeritus of Architecture & Design, in the Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich; was Head of the Academic Committee (2013-19) and member of the Board of the Holcim Foundation (2003/10 & 2013/19).

Last updated: April 22, 2024 Zurich, Switzerland & Los Angeles, USA

Marc Angélil is a founding member of the Board of the Foundation (2003-2010) and of the Academic Committee (2003-2010). He was Head of the Academic Committee (2013-19) and rejoined the Board of the Holcim Foundation (2013-19). He was a member of Holcim Foundation Awards juries for all regions (2014 & 2017), global juries (2015 & 2018), for Europe (2005), and for Latin America (2005, 2008 & 2011).

He moderated the workshop Mine the city - With logistics to circular metabolisms at the 3rd Holcim Forum 2010 on “Re-Inventing Construction”, participated in the concluding debate at the 4th Holcim Forum 2013 on “Economy of Sustainable Construction”, and was moderator of the 6th Holcim Forum 2019 on “Re-materializing Construction”. He was a participant at all three Roundtables on “Re-materializing Construction” (2014, 2015 & 2018).

Constructing sustainability: An evolving mission

Refugio Road Ranch in Santa Ynez, California, USA uses a design approach of “cheap materiality” of construction, and flexibility of use. By identifying the resources at hand and how they enable strong performance in economic and social terms.

Marc Angélil practices architecture with his partners Sarah Graham and Manuel Scholl at agps.architecture where he is Senior Advisor. Based in Zurich and Los Angeles, the firm’s projects include the Midfield Terminal at Zurich Airport; town center and light-rail station in Esslingen, Switzerland; extension of the IUCN Headquarters in Gland, Switzerland; Children’s Museum of Los Angeles (CMLA); an aerial tram infrastructure project in Portland, Oregon; Zurich International School; a slum upgrading project in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; as well as sports facilities for Adidas in Herzogenaurach, Germany.

With partner Sarah Graham, Marc Angélil was recipient of the 2008 “Honor Award for Architecture” from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for the Portland Aerial Tram project. For the B35 (apartment building in Zurich), he received the Innovation Award 2010 “Energiespeicher Beton” and for the extension of the IUCN Headquarters the 2010 “Swiss Solar Prize”.

Marc Angélil received his architectural degree from the ETH Zurich where he also completed his doctoral dissertation summa cum laude. He was an Assistant Professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) and subsequently Associate Professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles (UCLA).

He is co-author of Inchoate: An experiment in architectural education (ETH Zurich, 2003) on methods of teaching; Indizien: Zur politischen Ökonomie urbaner Territorien (Niggli, 2006) on the political economy of contemporary urban territories; Mirroring Effects: Tales of Territory (Ruby Press, 2018) exploring the relationship between urbanization processes and capitalism; and Terrestrial Tales: 100+ Takes on Earth (Ruby Press, 2019), a collection of representations of the globe over the last 2000 years. His publications include Building Brazil: Proactive urban renewal of informal settlements (edited with Rainer Hehl, 2011); Architecture dialogues: Positions, concepts, visions (edited with Jørg Himmelreich, Niggli, 2011), Reform! Essays on the political economy of urban forum Vol.4 (edited with Sarah Nichols, Ruby Press, 2015), and Flux Redux: 9 Sites of Experimentation in Stocks and Flows (University of Chicago Press, 2023).