ETH World - New Perspectives for Collaborative Design

Information Technology, globalization and new budgetary processes have growing impact on universities. Planning and design are no longer restricted to the invention and construction of physical artifacts and architecture. The number of non-physical or virtual aspects of buildings is growing steadily. The emergence of rapidly changing and spatially distributed research teams requires new types of cooperation between people, buildings, and virtual working environments. The same requirements apply for distance learning and distance research. ETH Zürich is launching a set of three projects that will combine physical and virtual aspects, thus creating an augmented architecture. The projects are known as ETH Campus, ETH Zentrum and ETH World. This information was first presented in this form in Seoul, Korea, in November 1999. Fig. 1. Drawing of the ETH Zürich chemistry building by Bluntschli and Lasius from 1875 in the center of Zürich. 2 ETH World – New Perspectives for Collaborative Design