About Us
The center's vision is to remove collaboration barriers in AEC and urban & landscape planning to address pressing sustainability challenges, boost productivity and simultaneously deliver high quality spaces. This is achieved through innovation in computational methods, artificial intelligence (AI), and extended reality (XR). Design++ fosters cross-departmental research, education, and industry collaboration to drive transformative change in the built environment.
Through Design++, we focus on computational design methods to better integrate quantitative metrics (such as structural integrity, energy performance, life-cycle assessment, acoustics, and cost estimation) with expressive and creative design. Furthermore, Design++ integrates artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms as they hold great promise to revolutionize design processes in the AEC industry, particularly in combination with the application of extended reality (XR) for design and engineering.
Design++ is an ETH+ initiative, which aims to develop greater capacity at the intersections between disciplines and create new professorships in future-oriented domains at ETH. Design++ therefore bridges domain expertise from Architecture, Civil Engineering and Computer Science, among others.
In order to achieve the intended interdisciplinary collaborations, we have established the following core activities to drive innovation and exchange at ETH an among the greater AEC industry:
- Drive collaboration and Knowledge Transfer with industry
- Collaborate in the Design++ Labs: Immersive Design Lab (IDL) and Large-scale Virtualization and Modelling Lab (LVML)
- Develop an active Research Network in the fields of AI/ML and XR for AEC at ETH
- Strengthen Education and Digital Literacy with the architecture & civil engineering curricula
- Lead innovative and interdisciplinary Research Projects
- Establish a new Professorship for Augmented Computational Design
- Attract top talent via the Design++ Fellowship Program
