Irina Davidovici

1. Monographs and edited books


  • (in press) Davidovici, Irina. 2022. Common Grounds: A Comparative History of Early Housing Estates in Europe, Zurich: Triest Verlag
  • (in press) Davidovici, Irina. 2022. Tendenzen: The Autonomy of Theory, Zurich: gta Verlag
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2018. Collective Grounds: Housing Estates in the European City, 1865–1934, ETH Zurich Habilitation Thesis, https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000344279, https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/handle/20.500.11850/344279
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2018. Forms of Practice: German Swiss Architecture 1980–2000, 2nd expanded edition, Zurich: gta Verlag, 2018, 375 pp., 186 ill., ISBN 978-3-85676-378-3
  • Davidovici, Irina (ed.). 2015. Colquhounery: Alan Colquhoun, from Bricolage to Myth. London: Architectural Association, ISBN 978-1-90789-6521
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2012. Forms of Practice: German Swiss Architecture 1980–2000, Zurich: gta Verlag, 2012, 285 pp., 145 ill., ISBN 978-3-85676-307-7.


2. Publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and anthologies


  • Davidovici, Irina and Laila Seewang (guest eds.). 2021. “Timber constructed: Towards an alternative material history”. In Architectural Theory Review 1.2021.
  • (in press) Davidovici, Irina. “Language logics: Housing in translation”. In Housing and the City, Katharina Borsi et al. (eds.), Routledge Critical Studies in Architectural Humanities, 2021.
  • (in press) Davidovici, Irina. “The discipline of concept and the judgement of the eye. Pedigrees of form in architectural practice”. In The Practice of Architectural Research, Caroline Voet, Eireen Schreurs, Helen Thomas (eds.), Leuven University Press, 2022.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2020. “Constructing ‘the School of the Ticino’: The historiography of a new Swiss architecture, 1975–1990”, eds. Petra Brower and Kristina Joekalda, The Journal of Architecture, 25:8, 1115-1140, DOI: 10.1080/13602365.2020.1849357
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2019. “Constructing the Site: The Ticino and Critical Regionalism”. In OASE: Architectural Journal 103, Critical Regionalism and Beyond, 92–104.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2018. Oliver Elser, Philip Kurz and Peter Cachola Schmal (eds.) “SOS Brutalism: A Global Survey, and Anette Busse and Dorothea Deschermeier (eds.) Brutalism: Contributions to the International Symposium in Berlin 2012”. Books review. In Studies in History & Theory of Architecture, vol. 6 (2018), 196–199.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2017. “Tafuri on Housing: Housing History as City-Making Praxis”. In Joehlo - Journal of Architectural Culture 8, 36–51. http://impactum-journals.uc.pt/joelho/issue/view/254
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2016. “Editorial”. bfo - Journal 2, 3–4. Stable URL: http://bauforschungonline.ch/sites/default/files/publikationen/Davidovici.pdf
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2015. “The Depth of the Street”. In AA Files 70, 103–123.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2011. “Systeem, gebaar, eenheid: Barokke tendensen in het werk van Valerio Olgiati = System, gesture, unity: Baroque tendencies in the work of Valerio Olgiati”. In OASE: Architectural Journal 86, 86–99.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2004. "Onstoffelijkheid en zinsbegoocheling = Abstraction and Artifice: Mannerism in the 20th Century". In OASE: Architectural Journal 65, 100–137.


3. Chapters in peer-reviewed books


  • Davidovici, Irina. 2021. “The Autonomy of Theory: Transfers of Knowledge in the Tendenzen Exhibition, ETH Zurich, 1975”. In R. Agarez, Elke Couchez and Rajesh Heynickx (eds.), Architecture Thinking Across Boundaries: Knowledge Transfers since the 1960s, London: Bloomsbury.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2020. “Utopia and Pragmatism in Zurich’s Co-operative Housing”. In Housing the Co-op: A Micro-Political Manifesto. Sascha Delz, Rainer Hehl, Patricia Ventura (eds.), Berlin: Ruby Press, 2020.
  • (in press) Davidovici, Irina, and Katia Frei. 2021. “Flora Ruchat-Roncati: ‘A Will to Keep Working’”. In The Routledge Companion to Women in Architecture, Anna Sokolina (ed.), Routledge, 2021
  • (in press) Davidovici, Irina. 2021. “Contingent syntheses: Realism and autonomy in archithese”. In The archithese reader: Critical positions in search of postmodernity, 1971–1976, Torsten Lange, Gabrielle Schaad (eds.), Zurich: Triest, 2021
  • (in press) Davidovici, Irina. 2021. ‘Housing figures’, in Building the Modern Afropolis. The Architecture and Urbanism of Agadir, Tom Avermaete (ed.), Zurich: Park 2021
  • (in press) Davidovici, Irina. 2021. Contested commons: Housing cooperatives in Zurich. In Stavros Stavrides and Penny Travlou (eds.), Housing as Commons, London: Bloomsbury
  • (in press) Davidovici, Irina. 2021. “Tendenza und das Tessiner Architekturnetzwerk” and “Über die Lehre: Berufliche und didaktische Strategien”. In Flora Ruchat-Roncati an der ETH Zürich 1985–2002: Professorin, Architektin, Theoretikerin. Eliana Perotti (ed.), with texts by Katrin Albrecht, Helene Bihlmaier, Irina Davidovici, Katia Frey, Julia Hemmerling and Eliana Perotti.
  • (in press) Davidovici, Irina and Eliana Perotti. 2021. “Cortile and Stöckli – Flora Ruchat-Roncati’s Home in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland”. In: Activism at Home: Architects’ Own Dwellings as Sites of Resistance, Isabelle Doucet and Janina Gosseye (eds.), Leipzig: Spector Books, 177–187.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2019. “Ideology and Urban Form in London’s Early Housing Estates, 1865–1900”. In Harald Stühlinger and Britta Hentschel (eds.), Recoding the City. Thinking, Planning, and Building the City of the 19th Century, Berlin: Jovis Verlag, 2019, 82–94.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2019. “Individual Action”. In Heike Biechteler, Johannes Käferstein (eds.)
  • Architekturpädagogiken: Ein Glossar, Zurich: Park 2019, 72–73.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2018. “Issues of Realism: Archithese, Postmodernism and Swiss Architecture, 1971–1986”. In Mediated Messages: Periodicals, Exhibitions, and the Shaping of Postmodern Architecture, Véronique Patteeuw, Léa-Catherine Szacka (eds.), London: Bloomsbury, 95–113.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2017. “Renewable Principles in H.A. Darbishire’s Peabody Estates, 1864 – 1885”. In Mobilising Housing Histories: Learning from London's Past for a Sustainable Future, David Kroll, Peter Guillery (eds.), London: RIBA Publishing, 57–74.
  • Davidovici, Irina (lead author), and Manuel Muntenegro. 2015. “Aspects of Urban Integration in SAAL Nord”. In 74-14 SAAL and Architecture. José António Bandeirinha, Delfim Sardo, Gonçalo Canto Moniz (eds.), Coimbra, Porto: University of Coimbra, Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, 143–149.


4. Peer-reviewed conference proceedings


  • Davidovici, Irina. 2019. ‘“Icons of compensation”: The Swiss Alps as intercultural boundary’. In Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, vol. 36, Victoria Jackson Wyatt, Andrew Leach and Lee Stickells (eds.), 79–90.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2016. “Architecture in Utopia? Agencies of design in Zurich’s alternative housing”. In Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference of the European Architectural History Network Kathleen James-Chakraborty (ed.), Dublin: University College Dublin, 245–255.


5. Contributions to edited books


  • Davidovici, Irina. 2021. “Communities of Practice: Reflections on a latter-day Flemish Tendens”. In Composite Presence. Biennale Architettura 2021, Sofie De Caigny, Dirk Somers, Maarten Van Den Driessche (eds.), Flemish Architecture Institute, 2021, 26–39.
  • (in press) Davidovici, Irina. 2021. “Housing Figures”. In Building the Modern Afropolis. The Architecture and Urbanism of Agadir, Tom Avermaete (ed.), Zurich: Park Books, 2021.
  • (in press) Avermaete, Tom and Irina Davidovici. 2021. “An architecture of resilience”. In Building the Modern Afropolis. The Architecture and Urbanism of Agadir, Tom Avermaete (ed.), Zurich: Park Books, 2021.
  • (in press) Davidovici, Irina. 2021. “High-rise as Habitat: Park Hill, Sheffield, 1957–61”. In The Renewal of Dwelling. Mosayebi, Elli (ed.), Zurich: Trieste Verlag, 2021.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2019. “An Architectural Imaginary. Introduction”. In Giorgio Azzariti. In Search of a Language: A Journey into Peter Märkli’s Imaginary, Paris: Editions Cosa Mentale, 2019.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2019. “Individual Action”. In Architekturpädagogiken: Ein Glossar. Biechteler, Heike, Johannes Käferstein (eds.), Zurich: Park Books, 2019.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2019. “Ideology and Urban Form in London’s Early Housing Estates, 1865–1900”. In Harald Stühlinger and Britta Hentschel (eds.), Recoding the City. Thinking, Planning, and Building the City of the 19th Century, Berlin: Jovis Verlag, 2019.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2017. “Ludwig Hilberseimer: The New City (1944)”. In Die Systematisierung städtebaulichen Wissens: Eine wissenschaftsgeschichtliche Untersuchung städtebaulicher Manuale von der Gründungsphase der Disziplin bis in die Zeit des Wiederaufbaus (1870-1950). Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, Katrin Albrecht, Lukas Zurfluh (eds.). Zurich: gta Verlag, 264–285.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2017. “Ideology and Collective Life. Zurich’s New Cooperatives”. In New Housing in Zurich: Typologies for a Changing Society. Dominique Boudet (ed.). Zurich: Park Books, 78–86.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2015. “Rooms”. In Peter Märkli: Sketches, Fabio Don and Claudia Mion (eds.), Lucerne: Quart Verlag, 32–39. ISBN 978-3-03761-123-4.
  • Victoria Easton, Davidovici, Irina, Eric Lapierre. 2015. “The Ceinture Rouge Syndrome”. In La Brique Ordinaire, Michael Meier, Christoph Franz (eds.). Zurich: edition fink 2015. ISBN 978-3-03746-188-4
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2015. “Galleries”. In San Rocco Book of Copies, Giovanni Piovene, Pier Paolo Tamburelli, Andrea Zanderigo (eds.), vol. II, Milan: San Rocco.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2015. “Foreword”. In Stephen Taylor Architects, de aedibus international editions, Lucerne: Quart Verlag. ISBN 978-3-03761-089-3
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2015. “Introduction” and “Biographical Notes”. In Colquhounery: Alan Colquhoun, from Bricolage to Myth. London: Architectural Association Publications, 4¬–41.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2015. “Small Rituals”. In Colquhounery: Alan Colquhoun, from Bricolage to Myth. London: Architectural Association Publications, 164–166.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2012. “The Open Question of Social Housing” and “Timeline”. In Feeling at Home: Finding Common Ground in Six Urban Housing Projects in Europe. Jonathan Sergison and Stephen Bates (eds.), London, 2–21. ISBN 978-0-9542371-6-5
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2012. “Tectonic Presence” in Buildings. Sergison Bates Architects, ed. Heinz Wirz, Lucerne: Quart Verlag, 9–13. ISBN 978-3-03761-061-9.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2010. “A Literary Architecture”. In Jonathan Woolf Architect, de aedibus international, Lucerne: Quart Verlag, 6–11. ISBN 978-3-03761-027-5
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2008. “Entries on contemporary Swiss architecture”. In The Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture. Helen Thomas (ed.), London: Phaidon.
  • Davidovici, Irina and Jonathan Sergison. 2005. “Authenticity and Singularity”. In Brickwork: Thinking and Making, Sergison Bates Architects, Zürich: gta Verlag, 2005, 13–17. ISBN 3-85676-171-3.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2001. "In Progress - Notes on projects by Dow Jones, Houlton Taylor and Patrick Lynch". In Encounters Between Here and There, London: Architecture Foundation, ISBN 978-0-9519067-5-0


6. Oral contributions to conferences (talk or poster)


  • Davidovici, Irina. 2021. “Communities of Practice: Reflections on a latter-day Flemish Tendens”. In Composite Presence. Biennale Architettura 2021, Sofie De Caigny, Dirk Somers, Maarten Van Den Driessche (eds.), Flemish Architecture Institute, 2021, 26–39.
  • (in press) Davidovici, Irina. 2021. “Housing Figures”. In Building the Modern Afropolis. The Architecture and Urbanism of Agadir, Tom Avermaete (ed.), Zurich: Park Books, 2021.
  • (in press) Avermaete, Tom and Irina Davidovici. 2021. “An architecture of resilience”. In Building the Modern Afropolis. The Architecture and Urbanism of Agadir, Tom Avermaete (ed.), Zurich: Park Books, 2021.
  • (in press) Davidovici, Irina. 2021. “High-rise as Habitat: Park Hill, Sheffield, 1957–61”. In The Renewal of Dwelling. Mosayebi, Elli (ed.), Zurich: Trieste Verlag, 2021.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2019. “An Architectural Imaginary. Introduction”. In Giorgio Azzariti. In Search of a Language: A Journey into Peter Märkli’s Imaginary, Paris: Editions Cosa Mentale, 2019.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2019. “Individual Action”. In Architekturpädagogiken: Ein Glossar. Biechteler, Heike, Johannes Käferstein (eds.), Zurich: Park Books, 2019.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2019. “Ideology and Urban Form in London’s Early Housing Estates, 1865–1900”. In Harald Stühlinger and Britta Hentschel (eds.), Recoding the City. Thinking, Planning, and Building the City of the 19th Century, Berlin: Jovis Verlag, 2019.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2017. “Ludwig Hilberseimer: The New City (1944)”. In Die Systematisierung städtebaulichen Wissens: Eine wissenschaftsgeschichtliche Untersuchung städtebaulicher Manuale von der Gründungsphase der Disziplin bis in die Zeit des Wiederaufbaus (1870-1950). Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, Katrin Albrecht, Lukas Zurfluh (eds.). Zurich: gta Verlag, 264–285.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2017. “Ideology and Collective Life. Zurich’s New Cooperatives”. In New Housing in Zurich: Typologies for a Changing Society. Dominique Boudet (ed.). Zurich: Park Books, 78–86.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2015. “Rooms”. In Peter Märkli: Sketches, Fabio Don and Claudia Mion (eds.), Lucerne: Quart Verlag, 32–39. ISBN 978-3-03761-123-4.
  • Victoria Easton, Davidovici, Irina, Eric Lapierre. 2015. “The Ceinture Rouge Syndrome”. In La Brique Ordinaire, Michael Meier, Christoph Franz (eds.). Zurich: edition fink 2015. ISBN 978-3-03746-188-4
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2015. “Galleries”. In San Rocco Book of Copies, Giovanni Piovene, Pier Paolo Tamburelli, Andrea Zanderigo (eds.), vol. II, Milan: San Rocco.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2015. “Foreword”. In Stephen Taylor Architects, de aedibus international editions, Lucerne: Quart Verlag. ISBN 978-3-03761-089-3
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2015. “Introduction” and “Biographical Notes”. In Colquhounery: Alan Colquhoun, from Bricolage to Myth. London: Architectural Association Publications, 4¬–41.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2015. “Small Rituals”. In Colquhounery: Alan Colquhoun, from Bricolage to Myth. London: Architectural Association Publications, 164–166.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2012. “The Open Question of Social Housing” and “Timeline”. In Feeling at Home: Finding Common Ground in Six Urban Housing Projects in Europe. Jonathan Sergison and Stephen Bates (eds.), London, 2–21. ISBN 978-0-9542371-6-5
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2012. “Tectonic Presence” in Buildings. Sergison Bates Architects, ed. Heinz Wirz, Lucerne: Quart Verlag, 9–13. ISBN 978-3-03761-061-9.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2010. “A Literary Architecture”. In Jonathan Woolf Architect, de aedibus international, Lucerne: Quart Verlag, 6–11. ISBN 978-3-03761-027-5
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2008. “Entries on contemporary Swiss architecture”. In The Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture. Helen Thomas (ed.), London: Phaidon.
  • Davidovici, Irina and Jonathan Sergison. 2005. “Authenticity and Singularity”. In Brickwork: Thinking and Making, Sergison Bates Architects, Zürich: gta Verlag, 2005, 13–17. ISBN 3-85676-171-3.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2001. "In Progress - Notes on projects by Dow Jones, Houlton Taylor and Patrick Lynch". In Encounters Between Here and There, London: Architecture Foundation, ISBN 978-0-9519067-5-0


7. Articles in the professional press


  • Davidovici, Irina, and Nicole la Hausse de Lalouviere. “Collective Actors and the Production of the City: Urban Commons in Research”. In NSL Newsletter 44, December 2019, ‘Methods’, https://www.nsl.ethz.ch/collective-actors-and-the-production-of-the-city-urban-commons-in-research/.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2017. “Reiterations. Cliché and interpretation in contemporary Swiss architecture”. In Project Journal 6, 34–43.
  • Davidovici, Irina, and Katrin Albrecht. 2017. “Convivium: Architecture as network”. In Werk, Bauen + Wohnen 12/2017, 8–13.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2017. “Der Lockruf des Lokalen. Beobachtung zum globalen Branding regionaler Architektur / The Lure of the Local. Notes on the global branding of regional architecture. In Werk, Bauen + Wohnen 7-8/2017, 38–42. https://www.wbw.ch/de/heft/artikel/originaltexte/2017-7-the-lure-of-the-local.html
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2017. “Grenzen ausloten: Architektur in den 1990er-Jahren”. In ARCH+ 229, 70–73.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2016. “The architect in an age of scepticism: Denys Lasdun’s London legacy”. In Werk, Bauen + Wohnen 12, 21–25.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2016. “Zurigo – Zu Reich”. In Casabella 861, Enigma Helvetia, 74–77.
  • Jean-Paul Jaccaud and Davidovici, Irina. 2016. “Shared Projects”. In Jean-Paul Jaccaud, de aedibus series, Heinz Wirz (ed.), Lucerne: Quart Verlag, ISBN 978-303761117-3
  • Jonathan Sergison and Davidovici, Irina. 2016. “Six Talking Points” (interview). In L’atlante dell’architetto / The Architect’s Atlas, Bruno Pedretti (ed.), Mendrisio, 2016, ISBN 978-883663456-9.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2015. “The Remit of Order: The Tempietto of Bramante”. In San Rocco 11, 34–40.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2015. “Re-evaluations. Notes on the work of Christian Kerez”. In archithese 6, 56– 67.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2014. “Capriccio in book form: Elements of Venice”. Book review. In archithese 44.5, 104–107
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2013. “Tectonic Connections: Peter Märkli, Synthes Headquarters, Solothurn”. In archithese 43.1, 20–27.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2013. “Alan Colquhoun 1921–2012”. In archithese 43.1, 92.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2011. “Diener & Diener Monograph”, Building Design. 18 July 2011. Available at http://www.bdonline.co.uk/diener-and-diener-monograph/5021426.article
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2010. “Adam Khan Architects: New Horizon Youth Center, Londres = Ideas of Home: New Horizon Youth Centre by Adam Khan Architects”. In Moniteur architecture AMC 199, 84–89.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2010. “Painted House”. In Architects’ Journal 231.9, 43–45.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2009. “Swiss rationale: Marcel Meili, Markus Peter architects: buildings and projects 1985-2008, with essays by Jurg Conzett... [et al.]”. In Architectural Review 225.1345, 93.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2008. “Typology: Stephen Taylor at Chance Street, Charlotte Road and Broadway Rainham”. In Architecture Today, 30–36.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2008. “Skyline celebration”. In Architecture Today 186, 40–43.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2007. “Kinder im Raum der Geschichte: Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, London, von Caruso St John = Children in the Room of History: Caruso St John, Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green, London”. In Werk, Bauen + Wohnen 11/2007, 32–37.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2005. "Weiterbauen: At the Rear of Swiss Avant-Garde". In Scroope - Cambridge Architecture Journal 17, 54–61.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2006. “Structure as space”. In Blueprint 247, 145.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2006. “An architecture of invitation: Colin St. John Wilson, Sarah Menin and Stephen Kite”. In Architecture Today 164, 6.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2005. “Andersartigkeit und Tradition: zur Genealogie der Differenz in der modernen britischen Architektur = Otherness and Tradition: A Genealogy of Difference in British Modern Architecture”. In Werk, Bauen + Wohnen 5/2005, 18–23. http://doi.org/10.5169/seals-68457
  • Kenneth Frampton and Davidovici, Irina. 2004. "A Specialist in Non-Specialization". In Scroope - Cambridge Architecture Journal 16.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2005. “Brick House, London, by Caruso St John”. In Building Design, 27 May 2005. https://www.bdonline.co.uk/buildings/rhapsody-in-brick/3051678.article
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2004. "Class Structure”. In Building Design, 2 July 2004. https://www.bdonline.co.uk/buildings/class-structure/3037799.article
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2003. "Marfa: Art in Exile, or ‘What Would Donald Judd Do?’". In Scroope - Cambridge Architecture Journal 15, 44–49.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2002. "Orientation + Topography: A Conversation with Stephen Bates and Jonathan Sergison. In Papers, London, 48–61, ISBN 978-0-9542371-0-3.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2002. “Tony Fretton Architects: Faith House”. In Casabella 66.706/707, 30–35.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2002. “Community focus: Talkback offices by Buschow Henley”. In Architecture Today 125, 36–46.
  • Davidovici, Irina and Jonathan Sergison. 2001. “Institute of Advanced Material Sciences, Trinity College, Dublin”. In Irish Architect 165, 41–46.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 2000. "Huis voor de kunst: New Art Gallery, Caruso St. John, Walsall”. In de Architect 31.6, 54–59.
  • Davidovici, Irina and Jonathan Sergison. 2000. “Material knowledge”. In Architecture Today 113, 30–38.
  • Davidovici, Irina. 1998. " Een intensere realiteit: het 'alledaagse' in de Engelse architectuur = A More Intense Reality: Ordinariness in English Architecture". In de Architect 29.12, 30–37.