ROLEX LEARNING CENTER by SANAA Architects

Rolex Learning Center - SANAA Architects

Rolex Learning Center / EPFL SANAA ©Hisao Suzuki

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Project Details:
NAME OF BUILDING; Rolex Learning Center
LOCATION: EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) – 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
SCHEDULE: Competition 2004
Construction: 2007 – 2009
Opening: February 22, 2010
CONSTRUCTION COST: 110 Million CHF
CLIENT: EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)
ARCHITECT: Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA
Team: Yumiko Yamada, Rikiya Yamamoto, Osamu Kato, Naoto Noguchi, Mizuko Kaji, Takayuki Hasegawa, Louis-Antoine Grego (Former staff: Tetsuo Kondo, Matthias Haertel, Catarina Canas)
Email: [email protected]
LOCAL ARCHITECT: Architram SA – Renens, Switzerland
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SITE DIMENSIONS: 88,000sqm (166.5m x 121.5m)
FOOTPRINT: 20,200sqm – FLOOR AREA: 37,000sqm
NUMBER OF FLOORS: 1 Basement + 1 Main
MAIN PROGRAMS: Multimedia Library – 500,000 volumes; Student Workspaces – 860 seats; Multipurpose Hall “Forum Rolex” – 600 seats; Café + Bar – 53 seats + exterior; Food Court – 128 seats + exterior; Restaurant – 80 seats; Career Center; Library Staff Office; EPFL Precious Book Collection; Student Association Office – “AGEPoly”; Alumni Association Office – “A3”; Pedagogy Research Office – “CRAFT”; Publication Office – “PPUR”
Bank – “Credit Suisse”; Bookshop – “LA fontaine”; Parking – 500 places
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Press Release by Rolex Learning Center:
Designed by the Japanese architectural practice SANAA, led by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, the Rolex Learning Center is a radical and highly experimental building, designed for new ways of study and interaction in the 21st century.

Rolex Learning Center within the EPFL campus © EPFL / Alain Herzog

A LIGHT AND ORGANIC SHAPE
Located centrally on the EPFL campus, and its new hub, the building is essentially one continuous
structure spread over a site of 88,000m2: The building is rectangular in plan, but appears to be more organic in shape because of the way that its roof and floor undulate gently, always in parallel. With few visible supports, the building touches the ground lightly, leaving an expanse of open space beneath which draws people from all sides towards a central entrance.

Rolex Learning Center / EPFL! SANAA ©Hisao Suzuki

SLOPES INSTEAD OF WALLS
Inside, the hills, valleys and plateaus formed by the undulation often make the edges of the building invisible, though there are no visual barriers between one area and the next. Instead of steps and staircases, there are gentle slopes and terraces. Clearly, but without dividing walls, one area of activity gives way to another. Visitors stroll up the gentle curves, or perhaps move around the space on one of the specially designed ʻhorizontal liftsʼ, elegant glass boxes, whose engineering is adapted from everyday lift design. As well as providing social areas and an impressive auditorium, the building lends itself to the establishment of quiet zones and silent zones, acoustically separated areas created through changes in height. The slopes, valleys and plateaus within the building, as well as the shapes made by the patios, all contribute to these barrier-free delineations of space. In addition, clusters of glazed or walled ʻbubblesʼ make small enclosures for small groups to meet or work together in.

Rolex Learning Center / EPFL SANAA ©Hisao Suzuki

Rolex Learning Center / EPFL SANAA ©Hisao Suzuki

Rolex Learning Center / EPFL SANAA ©Hisao Suzuki

PATIOS – ENCLOSURE AND ENCLOSED
The topography lends an extraordinary fluidity to the buildingʼs flexible open plan – a flow that is emphasised by fourteen voids in the structure, of varying dimensions. These are glazed and create a series of softly rounded external ʻpatiosʼ, as the architects describe them. The patios are social spaces and provide a visual link between the inside and the outside. They are very much part of the building. From the higher areas, visitors may enjoy views not only of the campus but, spectacularly, of Lake Geneva and the Alps.

AN INTIMATE PUBLIC SPACE
With all its unity and variety, the Rolex Learning Center is, as described by Kazuyo Sejima on the announcement that SANAA had won the architectural competition, an ʻintimate public spaceʼ.

DESIGNED FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
The Rolex Learning Center embodies the aims and philosophy of the EPFL, setting the scene for different kinds of collaborative, cross-disciplinary research, regarded as essential to advances in science and technology. It offers flexibility to use the building in many different ways, now and in the future, to absorb new technology and working methods, as they come on stream, many of them developed within EPFL itself. The building emphasises sociability, getting together for coffee, for lunch, for study, for seminars, to stimulate informal encounters between people of all the key disciplines. It is designed to be a landmark, a place people will want to visit, allowing EPFL to reach out to the surrounding community and internationally.
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