Unmasking Space: Other Forms of Learning
Malik Becker
Shriya Chaudhry
Michael Hoi Ming Du
Lisa Gärtner
Nina Hsu
Marie Langholz
Giacomo Rossi
Kemmett Saunders-Nazareth
Leon Schade
Yaelle T
Sacha Toupance
Eva Tschopp
Qianer Zhu
As a student-led group we aim to reflect critically on the current knowledge production in architecture education and bring attention to learning forms, voices, and methods that are currently under-acknowledged in the institution. Through multidirectional knowledge exchange and immersive activities, it experiments with other forms of learning, offering a critical lens on current pedagogies.
The initiative began in February 2022, when a small group of students at D-ARCH, ETH Zurich gathered to discuss the need for new forms of learning within the university. The name Unmasking Space was inspired by a reading group and lecture series initiated by Dr. Nitin Bathla and Dr. Ludwig Berger in 2020, which examined the role of spatial design and representation in constructing race, gender, and other systems of exclusion.
By spring 2022, the group had expanded to include Shriya Chaudhry, Michael Hoi Ming Du, Nina Hsu, Philip Kaiser, Martin Rösch, Giacomo Rossi, and Qianer Zhu, united by a shared ambition to create space within ETH for alternative tools, settings, and approaches to education.
A key milestone was finding institutional support through the Department of the Ongoing, led by Els Silvrants-Barclay and Khensani Jurczok-de Klerk at the time, within the Chair of Affective Architectures of Prof. An Fonteyne. This collaboration enabled Unmasking Space to establish its seminar as an official ETH course.
Since 2025, a new generation of students has taken over the collective's leadership, as founding members graduated. While former members remain active as mentors and collaborators, Unmasking Space continues to grow as a network rooted in student agency and engagement. At the moment the collective is preparing for another generational shift, recruiting new members.
Unmasking Space teaches a recurring course in the spring semester at ETH Zurich. The group first came together in the spring of 2022 as a reading circle and went on to establish the elective course for BA and MA students at ETH Zurich, supported by the Chair of Affective Architectures, led by Prof. An Fonteyne. Under the name Unmasking Space, four editions of the course have since been held.
The inaugural Unmasking Space course in spring 2023 aimed at testing learning spaces and formats, addressing transferability of skills from architecture to climate activism and activities outside of traditional education.
In spring 2024 the course engaged in a critical exploration of architecture and architectural education looking at where the built environment operates as an instrument of control.
The third edition of 2025 focused on urban scale, exploring multiple perspectives to understand the city’s dynamics and power structures.
In spring 2026, the course drew on the topic of labor, matching the Parity Talks XI. We examined working conditions in architectural education and professional practice, exploring challenges from excessive workloads and precarity to strategies of resistance and collectivity.
This coming academic year 2026-2027 Unmasking Space will undergo another generational shift. As student members graduate, the community of participants and collaborators has steadily expanded, Unmasking Space has evolved into a network that extends beyond the university.
We propose to further expand the activities of Unmasking Space outside of the university creating student engagement and expand as a network such as our symposium and exhibition at the gallery space Ca' Buccari in Venice in 2025, accompanied by the book Unmasking Space: A Handbook for Student Activism, published by dpr Barcelona, currently in preparation for its second edition. As a collective we aim to continue learning and unlearning from our expanding network.