Philippe Block

Member

Philippe Block became a member of Holcim’s Board of Directors in 2020, and serves as Chairman of the Health, Safety & Sustainability Committee. He is considered independent according to the Swiss Code of Best Practice for Corporate Governance.

Background

A Belgian national born in 1980, Philippe studied at the Free University of Brussels, Ixelles, Belgium, where he obtained his Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering-Architecture. He also has a Master’s Degree in Architectural Studies in Design and Computation and a PhD. in Building Technologies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the U.S.

Philippe joined ETH Zurich, Switzerland in 2009 as Assistant Professor of Architecture and Structure at the Institute of Technology in Architecture in the Department of Architecture (D-ARCH), and was promoted to Full Professor in 2017. In August 2025, he was appointed Director of Studies and member of the Executive Board at D-ARCH.

He founded and co-directs the institute’s Block Research Group, which focuses on the design and analysis of unreinforced masonry structures, structural design tools, computational form finding, as well as new sustainable and circular construction methods.

Additionally, Philippe is Director of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) in Digital Fabrication. A renowned expert in structural design, computational engineering and digital fabrication of concrete construction, he has numerous publications and awards.