Recurring
Please Be Brief
How to Craft Your Theoretical Statement,
Win Friends, and Influence People

EPFL Master Theoretical Statement
Course Number AR-598

“Architecture presumably has more to learn than to teach in the study of global politics. As the warm pools for new urban contagions, however, these real estate cocktails are also critical materializations of digital capitalism. A special kind of architectural research may contribute to global studies some vivid evidence of another set of mechanisms, perhaps as telling as financial and political indicators in charactering the market’s weakness, resilience, or violence.”

Easterling, Keller. 2005. Enduring Innocence: Global Architecture and its Political Masquerades. Cambridge, Mass.; London: MIT Press. 

RIOT organizes the theoretical statement semester (énoncé) as a seminar. It is both discussion-based and project-based. Students are expected to bring a thesis topic or direction to be discussed and will be requested to research to nourish this topic. While cases differ, fieldwork to sites and archives is encouraged. If the project is more conceptual, we shall define what will be produced in a discussion.

The research is a continuous effort across the semester, running parallel to class discussions, presentations, lectures, and recommended readings. Regular assignments fix the steps for the research development and are always paired with opportunities for additional feedback from the course tutor. Each step is outlined in the schedule and methodology hereafter. Templates and graphic guidance will be provided for a harmonized output, but these are negotiable. RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT

Master Students 2026

Myriam Alhadeff & Charline Hugues
"Holding Ground: Resistances at the Margins of the Euroméditerranée;" Advisor: Charlotte Malterre-Barthes (RIOT) 
Secondary Advisor: Dieter Dietz (ALICE)
Mentor EPFL: Kathlyn Kao

Julie Bron
"Are Prisons Obsolete?;" Advisor: Charlotte Malterre-Barthes (RIOT) 
Secondary Advisor: Dieter Dietz (ALICE)
Mentor EPFL: Antoine Iweins (RIOT)

Lydia Genecand
"Fables from the South: Alternative historiographies of colonialism through everyday material culture in post unification Sicily;" Advisor: Charlotte Malterre-Barthes (RIOT)
Secondary Advisor: Dieter Dietz (ALICE)
Mentor EPFL: Akshar Gajjar (THEMA)

Georgia Gollogy
"Taking responsibility for the means and methods?;"Advisor: Charlotte Malterre-Barthes (RIOT) 
Secondary Advisor: Jo Taillieu (LIF) 
Mentor EPFL: Elif Erez (RIOT)

Patrick Grandjean
"Two Farms a Day: Dispossession, Extensification, and Architecture of Swiss Agriculture;" Advisor: Charlotte Malterre-Barthes (RIOT)
Secondary Advisor: Laurin Baumgardt (THEMA)
Mentor EPFL: Julie Riondel (LAB-U)

Nora Guiges
Advisor: Elena Cogato (LAB-U)
Secondary Advisor: Charlotte Malterre-Barthes (RIOT)
Mentor EPFL: Kathlyn Kao (RIOT)

Claire Passer & Joseph Maziere
"Come as You Are : A Critical Mapping of Celebration in CH;" Advisor: Charlotte Malterre-Barthes (RIOT)
Secondary Advisor: Dieter Dietz (ALICE) 
Mentor EPFL: Nathalie Marj (RIOT)

[1] Image Source: "Please Be Brief" nameplate on the desk of Rahul Mehrotra, 2021.