As part of the Rotterdam Architecture Month program, Studio ACTE invites Swiss architect Philippe Rahm to deliver the lecture ‘Architecture is the art of building microclimates’. His talk will focus on climate as an inseparable aspect in architecture.

While circularity and ecology are widely recognised as fundamental pillars of sustainable and future-proof ways of building and living, climate itself remains one of the primary conditions shaping architecture. Drawing on the ideas developed throughout his work and publications, Rahm explores how comfort, climate, and the manipulation of environmental conditions are intrinsic to architectural design. Rather than focusing solely on form, architecture can be understood as the creation of microclimates that directly influence human experience, resource use, and ultimately the circularity and sustainability of buildings. Through this perspective, Rahm proposes a renewed understanding of architecture in response to contemporary environmental challenges.

Reserve your free spot for this lecture via this link.

About Philippe Rahm

Philippe Rahm (born in 1967) is a swiss architect (M.Arch EPFL, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland in 1993 and PhD University of Paris-Saclay, France in 2019), principal of the office Philippe Rahm architectes, based in Paris, France. His work, which extends the field of architecture from the physiological to the meteorological, has received an international audience in the context of sustainability.

In 2002, Mr. Rahm was chosen to represent Switzerland at the 8th Architecture Biennale in Venice. In 2025, he is co-curator of the Biennale of architecture and Landscape in Versailles (BAP!) and the biennale of Design in Saint-Etienne. He participates at the architecture biennales of Venice (2025, 2008, 2002), Madrid and Tbilisi in 2024, Chicago (2023, 2017), Tallinn in 2022, Sharjah in 2018, Seoul in 2017, among other. In 2007, he had a personal exhibition at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal.

His work includes the First Prize for the Farini competition (with OMA) in Milan in 2019 – a masterplan for a 62 hectares new district and a 15 hectares park –, the First Prize in 2011 for the 70 hectares Taichung Central Park (Jade Eco Park / Gateway Park) in Taiwan, completed in 2020 (with mosbach paysagistes), a research on the future of the skyline of the City of Geneva according to the implementation of ~20 000 heat pumps on the roofs of the buildings (2025), and a project for 200 homes next to Bordeaux in France (2026).

Monographic books include ‘Climatic architecture’ published by Actar in 2023, ‘Environ(ne)ment: Approaches for Tomorrow’, published by Skira in 2006, or ‘Constructed atmospheres’ published by Postmedia, Milan, Italy, in 2014. Philippe Rahm is the author of the theory books ‘A Natural History of Architecture’ published by Actar in 2026 and ‘The Anthropocene Style’ at HEAD-Publishing in 2023.

He has held professorships at the AA School in London (2005-2006), Mendrisio Academy of Architecture in Switzerland (2004 – 2005), EPFL Switzerland (2006 – 2007), School of Architecture of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts of Copenhagen (2009-2010), in Oslo at the AHO (2010-2011), Harvard GSD (2014-2016), at Cornell University (2019-2021), at ColumbiaUniversity 2016, 2023 and 2024 as Dean’s Visiting Associate Professor. From 2010 to 2012, he held the Jean Labatut Professorship in Princeton University, USA. He is currently a tenured associate professor at the National Superior School of Architecture in Versailles, France (ENSA-V) and Studio Critic at HEAD-Genève. He has lectured widely, including at Yale, Beijing Forum, Melbourne University and the ETH Zürich.

Mr. Rahm has received the Silver Medal of the French Academy of Architecture in 2019 and was made a knight of the Order of Cultural Merit of Monaco in 2017. Mr. Rahm was a resident at the Villa Medici in Rome (2000).