SANAA - Rolex Learning Center, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

Features

SANAA
Rolex Learning Center
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Lausanne, Switzerland

Photo © Iwan Baan

The Rolex Learning Center is above all a library and learning space devoted to the cultivation of knowledge by an array of different methods. It has one of the largest collections of scientific literature in Europe, with over 500,000 volumes. In addition, an exciting range of new pedagogical technologies in the building, as well as the layout itself, are innovations to the public’s approach to texts and learning.

Photo © Iwan Baan

Located centrally on the EPFL campus, and its new hub, the building is essentially one continuous structure spread over the site. 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.

Photo © Iwan Baan

The most audacious aspect of the new library is its lack of physical boundaries. The large open space is defined by its artificial geography. It groups silent and calm zones along its hills and slopes, rather than offering traditional cloistered study rooms. 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.

Photo © Iwan Baan

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 “bubbles” make small enclosures for small groups to meet or work together in.

Photo © Iwan Baan

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 “horizontal lifts,” elegant glass boxes, whose engineering is adapted from everyday lift design.

Photo © Iwan Baan

The topography lends an extraordinary fluidity to the building’s flexible open plan – a flow that is emphasized by fourteen voids in the structure, of varying dimensions. These are glazed and create a series of softly rounded external ‘patios’, 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.

Photo © Iwan Baan

“We did not make a normal one-room space but incorporated patios and topography to organize the program such that each is separated and connected at the same time. The large one-room space undulates up and down creating an open space under the building so that people can walk to the center of the building. This enabled us to make one main entrance at the center of the building.”
SANAA

The Rolex Learning Center is a highly energy-efficient building which, for its low energy consumption, has received the coveted Minergie label – the standard used in Switzerland for measuring environmental excellence in buildings.

Model photo courtesy SANAA

Rendering courtesy SANAA

Site Area: 288,714 square feet
Footprint: 66,273 square feet
Floor Area: 121,391 square feet

Completed: 2010

Client: EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)
Architects: SANAA Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa
Project Team:
Yumiko Yamada
Rikiya Yamamoto
Osamu Kato
Naoto Noguchi
Mizuko Kaji
Takayuki Hasegawa
Louis-Antoine Grego
Contractor: Losinger Construction SA
Project Management: Botta Management Group AG
Local Architect: Architram SA
Structural Base Concept: SAPS / Sasaki and Partners
Structural Engineers:
B+G Ingenieure Bollinger
Grohmann GmbH

Photographed by Iwan Baan

Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa were named 2010 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureates.

SANAA arcspace features

April 21, 2010