Michael Gnehm
Curriculum Vitae

⚫︎ MICHAEL GNEHM is a research associate at the Accademia di architettura, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), Mendrisio. He received his PhD in Art History from the University of Zurich in 2004 with the book Mute Poetry on language in Gottfried Semper, and his habilitation (second book) in History of Art and Architecture from ETH Zurich in 2010 with the book Allegories of Architecture on literary aspects of architectural descriptions. ⚫︎ Since then, he lectures in the HISTORY and THEORY of ARCHITECTURE at the Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich. In 2006, Michael Gnehm was awarded the Prix Jubilé of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences for an article on the first German translation of Vitruvius in the 16th century. Since 2017, he is co-editor of the critical and commented edition of Gottfried Semper’s Style. ⚫︎ In his TEACHING and RESEARCH, he focuses on architectural positions from the 19th to the 21st centuries against the backdrop of the relationship between history and the present. ⚫︎ Recent PUBLICATIONS (list with PDFs) include Gottfried Semper’s London Writings (gta 2021), “A Spiraling History of Architecture” in historicism (Routledge 2020), and two chapters in Sir Banister Fletcher’s Global History of Architecture (Bloomsbury 2020).

michael.gnehm

COURSES



HISTORY & THEORY of ARCHITECTURE IX
[063-0807-24]
PREHISTORY in ARCHITECTURE. The Past Today
Michael GNEHM
Autumn 2024 | Fridays 11:45–12:30
HIL E 3
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HISTORY & THEORY of ARCHITECTURE IX
[063-0807-23]
PHILOSOPHY for ARCHITECTS
Michael GNEHM
Autumn 2023 | Fridays 11:45–12:30
HIL E 3
The lecture course offers discussions on the presence of philosophical issues in the current discourse of architecture and provides tools for a critical assessment, and practical application, of arguments at the intersection of philosophy and architecture.
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HISTORY & THEORY of ARCHITECTURE IX
[063-0807-22]
COMING HOME. Stories in Architectural Theory
Michael GNEHM
Autumn 2022 | Fridays 11:45–12:30
HIL E 3
The lecture course discusses architecture and literature in its diverse relations: Stories as moments when architecture comes to life, the writing of architectural history and theory and literary writing. The focus aims at the notion of home and its discontents in architectural narratives.
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HISTORY & THEORY of ARCHITECTURE IX
[063-0803-02]
Between COSMOS and CHAOS
Semper’s Theory of Architecture
Michael GNEHM
Autumn 2021 | Fridays 11:45–12:30
HIL E 8
The lecture course discusses Gottfried Semper’s complex approach to architecture as the «small world» created by mankind within a global scope framing history and the present between a cosmological totality and chaotic fragmentation.
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