elsewhere starts here
Stéphanie Bru and Alexandre Theriot, 2026
We often think that elsewhere is far away.
Another country.
Another culture.
Another climate.
But elsewhere is not a distance.
It is a position.
In our work with students, we do not seek to produce seductive images.
We seek to produce a shift.
When a student picks up a camera,
they are not merely documenting a project.
They are constructing a point of view.
And that point of view creates an elsewhere.
Elsewhere starts here.
In the way we tell.
In the choice of what we show.
In what we decide to leave out of frame.
A video is not a representation.
It is a statement of position.
It reveals an economy.
It reveals a relationship to time.
It reveals a way of inhabiting the world.
This shift is not aesthetic.
It is critical.
By asking students to narrate their project,
we ask them to understand what they are doing.
Not only how it holds together,
but what it produces.
To narrate is to construct.
To compose is to assemble.
To pace a sequence is to decide on a hierarchy.
Elsewhere starts here,
in this capacity to transform a project into a narrative,
and a narrative into a position.
Because at its core,
architecture is not limited to producing forms.
It produces ways of seeing.
Another country.
Another culture.
Another climate.
But elsewhere is not a distance.
It is a position.
In our work with students, we do not seek to produce seductive images.
We seek to produce a shift.
When a student picks up a camera,
they are not merely documenting a project.
They are constructing a point of view.
And that point of view creates an elsewhere.
Elsewhere starts here.
In the way we tell.
In the choice of what we show.
In what we decide to leave out of frame.
A video is not a representation.
It is a statement of position.
It reveals an economy.
It reveals a relationship to time.
It reveals a way of inhabiting the world.
This shift is not aesthetic.
It is critical.
By asking students to narrate their project,
we ask them to understand what they are doing.
Not only how it holds together,
but what it produces.
To narrate is to construct.
To compose is to assemble.
To pace a sequence is to decide on a hierarchy.
Elsewhere starts here,
in this capacity to transform a project into a narrative,
and a narrative into a position.
Because at its core,
architecture is not limited to producing forms.
It produces ways of seeing.
__ context
Elsewhere starts here is a compilation of short stories imagined and produced by the students over the past three years within the studios led by Stéphanie Bru at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio and Alexandre Theriot at ETH Zurich, under the guidance of documentary filmmaker Francesco Clerici. An exploration of film as a tool for thinking, constructing, and composing ideas.
Together, these films form a collective testimony to a diversity of perspectives, revealing how architecture is not only built in space but also in time and narrative.
Together, these films form a collective testimony to a diversity of perspectives, revealing how architecture is not only built in space but also in time and narrative.
Length: 50 min.
Editing: Francesco Clerici
Screening on the 8th of May 2026 at Cinema Beltrade, followed by a discussion between Francesco Clerici, Stéphanie Bru and Alexandre Theriot
Editing: Francesco Clerici
Screening on the 8th of May 2026 at Cinema Beltrade, followed by a discussion between Francesco Clerici, Stéphanie Bru and Alexandre Theriot
__ credits
Chair Alexandre Theriot ETHZ
Studio Stéphanie Bru Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio
Chair of Stéphanie Bru – KIT
Studio Stéphanie Bru Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio
Chair of Stéphanie Bru – KIT
__ in collaboration with
Francesco Clerici
__ team
Stéphanie Bru
Philippe Buchs
Alice Fenwick
Blanka Major
Alexandre Theriot
Oliviero Vitali
Philippe Buchs
Alice Fenwick
Blanka Major
Alexandre Theriot
Oliviero Vitali
__ students
Remo Ackermann, Sofia Alecci, Luis Telmo Alves, Jos Auf der Maur, Riccardo Avogardo, Christian Bacher, Luca Bächler, Max Backmann, Daria Baldovino, Martina Balzarini, Helen Bangerter, Sebastian Baumann, Baldouin Bee, Nadine Bein, Lorenzo Bellarosa, Sofia Bernasconi, Gianlorenzo Bertolero, Pietro Bertolini, Pascal Bertschi, Elena Bisaglia, Hellen Boje, Sveva Bonapace, Timur Bonhage, Emanuel Bosonnet, Matthew Born, Pietro Borzacca, Nils Braun, Nicola Bryner, Alixe Noémie Bucher, Caspar Bultmann, Anthony Butcher, Luca Bötschi, Bertha Calleja, Nico Canal, Tabitha Ceriani, Xiaohan Chen, Giacomo Chiocchetti, Michelle Ciorciari, Aleksandra Cizek, Adele Cortese, Rémy Crettenand, Quentin Davel, Marta Dell’Erba, Rubina De Ponti, Fabrizio Di Francesco, Paul Dillier, Lou Dörig, Alina Drofa, Franck Ducotterd, Sina Dullenkopf, Héloise Dussault-Cloutier, Valentin Egger, Daniel Epprecht, Taro Ernst, Enzo Fontanella, Laurin Forrer, Elia Facchini, Anna Ferrario, Ottavia Franceschini, Sophie-Charlotte Frehse, Benjamin Frei, Eloise Frey, William Frey, Selina Frei, Michele Frezza, Daniel Fölsch, Ludovico Gallizia, Elena Gallo, Giovanna Gambaro, Moritz Constantin Gamerdinger, Rimon Ganahl, Xi Gao, Elio Garbani, Denise Gerber, Hector Gentizon, Noa Gherbi, Maria Gisler, Anna Chiara Gloor, Erik Gonzalez, Isidor Gonzalez Escobar, Adam Górka, Cheryne Götz, Désirée Grindat, Stefan Gross, Chakrey Grumbach, Laurent Gruson, Vittoria Guglielmi, Lukas Haas, Ryan Hasan, Marie Hausmann, Guy Helfer, Arthur Helmecke, Florin Högger, Wen-Ting Hsieh, Ronja Hummel, Caroline Isenegger, Ryuhei Iwashita, Zhiyuan Jiang, Torbjörn Johansson, Renée Lou Jungo, Paula Jürgens, Piotr Kadlubowski, Leon Kallert, Mia Kamm, Lisa Kammereck, Shizuka Kamiwada, Kaspar Kärcher, Frano Karlovic, Ryuichi Kawasaki, Ann-Sophia Kirchhofer, Lukas Kistler, Felix Kohli, Fabian Kohler, Noah Kohler, Tim Kolitscher, Jan Kottkamp, Marina Kottler, Michelle Krebs, Hyuk Sung Kwon, Lars Tristan Lampert, Andreas Lanz, Andreas Lanz, Cielle Lauper, Valeria Lazari, Philémon Léchot, Dongwon Leigh, Anne Lhopiteau, Angèlica Lindoso, Chiara Linsalata, Sean Liu, Chenying Lu, Andrés Lussi, Gabriele Marinoni, Aris Marsanich, Zacarias Marti, Nicolas Martin, Noah Martin, Vanessa Martinez Calderon, Lisa Marzullo, Yusuke Matsuzaki, Cécile Mathieu, Maurin Matthys, Linus Maurer Florin Meier, Alice Mazzolo, Rune Meesenburg, Lukas Meier, Stella Meister, Pascal Mijnssen, Cami Minger, Simone Mirabella, Roxanne Monnard, Raphaël Mooser, Leonardo Moschetto De Wan, Ziyong Mu, Jonas Müller, Nikola Nikolov, Haru Noguchi, Andrea Occelli, Ines Ostojic, Anna Ozhiganova, Maura Pagani, Filip Pawlowski, Johannes Pollmann, Lorenzo Principe, Lorenzo Principe, Clau Quinter, Romero Ratti, Piraveenan Raveendrarajah, Virgina Ricceri, Enrico Ricci, Antoine Robert, Tobias Rohner, Dario Rüegg, Kristiana Rusch, Justus-Alexander Rumpf, Tommaso Sala, Júlia Santín Miracle, Alexandros Sarantaenas, Giacomo Sarra, Manon Schaffner, Michelle Schenk, Margherita Schivazappa, Alejandra Schmid Lamarty, Florian Schmid, Marius Schmidt, Eva Schneider, Manolo Schneider, Nils Schneuwly, Noah Schnyder, Noé Schwaller, Vico Seeger, Leo Seiler, Ilja Senn, Aaron Senn, Denis Sermaxhaj, Yunting Shen, Gustav Sigvant, Jannis Simon, Nicolas Sigron, Iya Shopova, David Siegrist, Tommaso Sossi, Clemens Spaar, Zeno Späth, Jan-Niklas Spörri, Philipp Stäheli, Carlota Steib Salgado, Lyle Stemper, Mathis Steinmann, Harrison Stockdale, Linda Stössel, Janis Suà, Ciaran Sumesgutner, Chloe Szwarc, Lisa Schmitz-Peiffer, Callum Symmons, Suela Tahiri, Zhenduo Tao, Marie Tassan-Din, Thora Tews, Jievithan Thillaiampalam, Viviane Thum, Wendy Tian Lin, Damien Troilo, Jeremy Tshiyembi Kayoka, Zhouyi Tu, Yonas Tukuabo, Yixin Tu, Atilla Turul, Simon Ulbrich, Luna Ghislaine van Arendonk, Eugenia Varbella, Freddy Vetter, Nieves Vignau, Dominik Vogel, Mona Vogt, Julian Volken, Meng Wang, Sofia Weidner, Henri Weidmann, Florian Weinke, Jonah Wenger, Tobias Wiberg, Moritz Wick, Marvin Winkens, Matteo Wolfart, Hao Wu, Duo (Vivian) Xu, Haichen Xu, Micha Zahnd, Pierre-Loup Zehnder, Peng Zhang, Margaryta Zimarina, Ksenia Zivic.