معرفی
Milica Topalovic serves as Assistant Professor of Architecture and Territorial Planning at ETH Zurich's Department of Architecture within the Institute for Landscape and Urban Studies (LUS) since August 2015. Previously, she held a research professorship at the ETH Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore from 2011-2015 where she investigated city-hinterland relationships.
Her research focuses on territorial urbanization beyond traditional city boundaries, examining how urban processes extend into rural areas, hinterlands, and natural landscapes including alpine zones, jungles, deserts, and oceans. Topalovic challenges conventional urban-rural dichotomies through the concept of 'constitutive exteriors' of the city, arguing that even remote spaces are increasingly drawn into urbanization processes.
Her work combines research and design through design research studios, travel expeditions, and site explorations. Current projects include examining agroecological practices in the Zurich region, biocultural cartographies of indigenous territories, and planetary urbanization patterns. She teaches design studios and seminars focusing on territorial scales, with recent courses including 'Architecture of Territory: MY CLOUD' (2025), 'Urban Agroecology on Uetliberg's Foothills' (2025), and 'Sessions on Territory – Agency: Architecture in the Civil Service' (2025).
Topalovic's publications explore extended urbanization, including the influential book Extended Urbanisation. Tracing Planetary Struggles (2023), which is now available in open access. Her research demonstrates how architecture and urban planning must adapt to increasingly ubiquitous urban conditions by developing concepts, methods, and approaches that extend beyond urban centers to broader territorial frameworks.
She has led significant research initiatives including:
- The Hinterland research project examining Singapore's territorial relationships
- European Countryside research pathway initiated after relocating to Zurich in 2015
- Agroecological Repair project for Zurich's territory
- Biocultural Cartographies research
Topalovic actively participates in academic discourse through conferences, exhibitions, and public debates, notably contributing to the ECLAS Conference 2025 on Agricultural Landscapes and the NSL Colloquium on Planetary Urbanisation.
