The Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture was founded on 1 January 1967 as a research body at the Architecture Department of ETH Zurich. The opening symposium was held on 23 June 1967. Since its beginnings in 1967, the past and the present, theory and practice, have been the cornerstones and reference framework for the work undertaken at the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture. Besides teaching activities in the fields of the history of art and architecture, architectural theory and urban design, the institute’s core focus since its launch has lain in mediating and exploring architecture in its historical depth and thematic breadth. The results of the institute’s in-house research, which is primarily influenced by the areas of interest of the teaching staff and the holdings of the simultaneously established archive, have been presented since 1968 in a publication series. These first appeared in cooperation with the Birkhäuser publishing house, later with the Ammann publishing house and since the mid-1980s in the gta Verlag, which today enjoys the reputation of being one of the leading architecture publishers. The absorption of the so-called Semper Archive from the ETH Bibliothek on the occasion of the creation of the institute forms the foundation of the gta Archives, which over time has advanced to become an internationally renowned research facility. Since then, the main acquisition emphasis has been on the architecture of the nineteenth century and the pre-modern, modern architecture in the form of collections, as well as advance legacies and bequests of individual architects of international stature . The organisational office for exhibitions by the ETH Zurich’s Department of Architecture became incorporated in the institute in 1974, and – since 1986 as gta Exhibitions – affords a wide public insight into contemporary architectural discourse and current research at the department.
Institute directors
Adolf Max Vogt, director from 1967 to 1974 and 1981 to 1982
Chair of the History of Art and Architecture, Philip Ursprung
The following divisions assist the research projects and convey their findings:
gta Archives
gta Verlag
gta Exhibitions
The gta Institute assists in the promotion of academic newcomers with its own doctoral programme. The institute’s educational provisions are supplemented by the programme Master of Studies in the History and Theory of Architecture, which mediates between practice and scholarship. There is a close academic exchange with the Werner Oechslin Library Foundation, associated with the ETH Zurich via a cooperation agreement.
Teaching and research areas
The institute’s task is to empirically appraise and theoretically reflect upon architecture in its historical depth and ideological breadth. Along with the establishing and verification of facts, the gta Institute has always been at pains to review applied methods in terms of their validity as models and to make them beneficial to contemporary architecture. As an institute, the gta researches and teaches the history of knowledge of architecture, building forms and techniques, the function of architecture and its relations to society and politics, the evolution of design and architectural thinking from the beginnings to today, as well as the methodologies of architectural history work ranging from building analysis through to the digital humanities.
