Polpo is presented at Salone del Milano
5.–10. Sept. 2021
Emilie Appercé
(*1990, Paris)
Würzgrabenstrasse 6, 8048 Zurich
mail@emilieapperce.com
Emilie Appercé is a Paris–Zurich based architect and researcher working across spatial design, digital innovation, and editorial strategy. She leads a practice that includes built architecture projects, product design, as well as curatorial work and writing.
Her work applies architectural thinking to define spatial strategies and guide a coherent overall vision. She believes in well-crafted architecture, with a strong commitment to reuse as a responsible way to shape the future built environment. This is complemented by an interest in how technology can inform both working methodology and tools.
Recently, she has collaborated with architect Leo Bettini on the transformation of university canteens, bringing together stakeholders such as ETH, ZFV-Genossenschaft, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) and Roots; as well as two renovations for Swiss artists combining cultural and residential programs.
She has a strong interest in contemporary art and has been invited to write on artists’ works, including Thomas Demand and Lars Tunbjörk, to design exhibitions for international galleries and institutions such as Yangshuo Sugar House in China, and to participate in a summer residency at The Watermill Center, in New York. Art continuously informs her approach to architecture and the physical qualities of buildings.
Since 2019, Emilie has been teaching as a Senior Scientific Collaborator at the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich. Her academic research is complemented by her role in the development and editing of womenwritingarchitecture.org, a global digital network and annotated bibliography. This partnership with Helen Thomas led to the founding of wwa (publishing) and Tisch Zwei Verein, a platform for discussion on architectural discourse and its dissemination.
Previously, Emilie worked as a project-leading architect and BIM manager at Caruso St John Architects. She contributed to large-scale housing projects and complex competitions, including the Universitätsspital Zürich and the Museum for a Roman Villa in Pully.
Full project list available here — for an extended portfolio and CV, please contact
Hochhaus zur Palme, Zürich
December 2023
Film in collaboration with Matthew Phillips and Kairos Studio
Film footage: Kairos Studio
Hochhaus zur Palme, the former Credit Suisse headquarters, captured in its suspended state before its imminent renovation
Capsule Issue 4
2025
capsule.global
feed Under the Light Spell
Photography Firm of Accountants, by Lars Tunbjörk, 1997
A hybrid between a magazine and a book, paying homage to a lineage of Italian radical design publications while indulging in a lavish physicality.
Delving into the world of design in its broader definition through a genre-bending line up of designers, architects, and creators.
Fire Pit Tower of Yangshuo Sugar House, Guilin, China
2023
Exhibition and exhibition design in collaboration with Liaohui Guo
Client: Aurua Arts Foundation
Image credits: Isaïa Delaplace, Roman Signer, Marina Montresor, KAMU, Espoo City Museum, Gion von Albertini
Varnished cardboard columns, paper screens. Projections: scrolling of contributor images, and annotations in English and Chinese, read by generated voices.
Exhibition design with Matthew Phillips
with contributions by Manon Gaeschlin, Martin Jaeggi
Photos credits: Flavio Leone
Light installations, colour filters applied to an existing lighting system
Stool produced for Milano Design Week 2021
6 mm recycled moulded plastic
41x ø38 cm / 6kg 4 colour options
Photos credits Dominic Kim, Selina Feuerstein
conversation with Anders Byriel, CEO of Kvadrat, textile makers compagny, as part of this publication, on the question of patronage, legacy, narratives, pleasure and celebration.
The Triple Folly presents the rich collaboration between artist Thomas Demand, architects Caruso St John, and Kvadrat which produced a new pavilion for Kvadrat’s Ebeltoft campus.
This publication presents extensive images of the completed buildings alongside other illustrated conversations with Frank Gehry, Denise Scott Brown, Adam Caruso, Valerie Verhack, and Thomas Demand.
transformation and adaptive re-use of the Zurich International office
in collaboration with members of the Zurich International Verein
Photo credits: Tibor Bielicky
In 2022, the chair of Jan de Vylder at ETH Zurich began a 3-year experiment at the Furka Pass, (in:dépendance), 2429m above sea level and only accessible 4 months a year.
Women Writing Architecture represented by Helen Thomas, London-Zürich based architect, publisher, Jaehee Shin, architect, WWA editor born in Korea, and Emilie Appercé,
met together in this high Swiss pass to consider the work of a woman from a far distant time and place.
Led by D. Graham Burnett, Professor of History and History of Science at Princeton University and Hermione Spriggs, London-based artist, researcher.
At The Watermill Center, founded by theater and visual artist Robert Wilson.
Together with Graham Burnett, Hermione Spriggs, Catherine Hansen, Kyle Berlin, Anacarolina Marques, Brad Fox.
Place de Stalingrad, Paris (F)
2020-on going
Client: Private
Project of a winter bar Place de la Bataille de Stalingrad
Steel truss structure, outer skin of galvanised steel corrugated sheet, PVC slatted opening closures
Museumstrasse, Biel (CH)
2021
In collaboration with Silvio Schubiger
Restoration of a single-family house in a former villa divided into three parts.
3d scanned documentation of the on going construction site
Design: Romy Strasser — Code: Till Kammertöns
Hochhaus zur Palme, Zürich
December 2023
Film in collaboration with Matthew Phillips and Kairos Studio
Film footage: Kairos Studio
Hochhaus zur Palme, the former Credit Suisse headquarters, captured in its suspended state before its imminent renovation
Capsule Issue 4
2025
capsule.global
feed Under the Light Spell
Photography Firm of Accountants, by Lars Tunbjörk, 1997
A hybrid between a magazine and a book, paying homage to a lineage of Italian radical design publications while indulging in a lavish physicality.
Delving into the world of design in its broader definition through a genre-bending line up of designers, architects, and creators.
Fire Pit Tower of Yangshuo Sugar House, Guilin, China
2023
Exhibition and exhibition design in collaboration with Liaohui Guo
Client: Aurua Arts Foundation
Image credits: Isaïa Delaplace, Roman Signer, Marina Montresor, KAMU, Espoo City Museum, Gion von Albertini
Varnished cardboard columns, paper screens. Projections: scrolling of contributor images, and annotations in English and Chinese, read by generated voices.
Exhibition design with Matthew Phillips
with contributions by Manon Gaeschlin, Martin Jaeggi
Photos credits: Flavio Leone
Light installations, colour filters applied to an existing lighting system
Stool produced for Milano Design Week 2021
6 mm recycled moulded plastic
41x ø38 cm / 6kg 4 colour options
Photos credits Dominic Kim, Selina Feuerstein
conversation with Anders Byriel, CEO of Kvadrat, textile makers compagny, as part of this publication, on the question of patronage, legacy, narratives, pleasure and celebration.
The Triple Folly presents the rich collaboration between artist Thomas Demand, architects Caruso St John, and Kvadrat which produced a new pavilion for Kvadrat’s Ebeltoft campus.
This publication presents extensive images of the completed buildings alongside other illustrated conversations with Frank Gehry, Denise Scott Brown, Adam Caruso, Valerie Verhack, and Thomas Demand.
transformation and adaptive re-use of the Zurich International office
in collaboration with members of the Zurich International Verein
Photo credits: Tibor Bielicky
In 2022, the chair of Jan de Vylder at ETH Zurich began a 3-year experiment at the Furka Pass, (in:dépendance), 2429m above sea level and only accessible 4 months a year.
Women Writing Architecture represented by Helen Thomas, London-Zürich based architect, publisher, Jaehee Shin, architect, WWA editor born in Korea, and Emilie Appercé,
met together in this high Swiss pass to consider the work of a woman from a far distant time and place.
Led by D. Graham Burnett, Professor of History and History of Science at Princeton University and Hermione Spriggs, London-based artist, researcher.
At The Watermill Center, founded by theater and visual artist Robert Wilson.
Together with Graham Burnett, Hermione Spriggs, Catherine Hansen, Kyle Berlin, Anacarolina Marques, Brad Fox.
Place de Stalingrad, Paris (F)
2020-on going
Client: Private
Project of a winter bar Place de la Bataille de Stalingrad
Steel truss structure, outer skin of galvanised steel corrugated sheet, PVC slatted opening closures
Museumstrasse, Biel (CH)
2021
In collaboration with Silvio Schubiger
Restoration of a single-family house in a former villa divided into three parts.
3d scanned documentation of the on going construction site
Polpo is presented at Salone del Milano
5.–10. Sept. 2021