Dr. Ben Gitai brings together geography, architecture, and interconnected fields through his multidisciplinary research and practice. He has held teaching positions at leading Swiss and French institutions, including ETH Zurich and EPFL, as well as scientific collaborations with the David Rumsey Mapping Center at Stanford University.

His work draws from landscape architecture, landscape ecology, urban planning, political geography, and history to examine how spatial configurations evolve across time and reflect underlying social, political, economic and power dynamics. Through these lenses, he develops metabolic and ecological design approaches.

Central to his research is the recontextualization of mapping as a tool for portraying the intricate connections between human activities and natural systems. This approach reveals new perspectives on the forces that continuously shape and reshape our built and natural environments.

Dr. Gitai currently serves as head coordinator of the Habitat Research Center and works as both scientist and lecturer at the Laboratory of Landscape Development at EPFL, where he develops research on transitional landscapes.

This course focuses on transforming urban voids, like vacant lots or abandoned buildings, into valuable spaces addressing challenges such as climate change and social cohesion. It equips engineers and architects with interdisciplinary skills to creatively repurpose these areas for multiple benefits.

Teaching team: Prof. Beate Jessel, Kirk Enu, Ben Gitai, Stephanie Bender

Landscape transformation : Mapping Time, Space and Habitat

Humans have always shaped and been shaped by the landscapes they inhabit. "Chronomapping" is an innovative methodology developed by Dr. Gitai that investigates landscape transformations through time by integrating data and insights from disciplines such as architecture, landscape architecture, hydrology, urban planning, climatology, ecology, sociology, anthropology, political geography, history, and even the psychology of aesthetics. The methodology is a means to produce visual representations and new conceptual frameworks of territories and habitats across time. It can also cast power dynamics and territorial transformations in new lights by examining the interplay between terrain, territory, and cartography across historical periods.