EPFL unveils Rolex Learning Center with no walls

The long-awaited EPFL Rolex Learning Center will open to students and the public on 22 February 2010. Designed by Japanese SANAA ‘starchitects’ Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa the centre abolishes internal physical frontiers and creates a unified space that appears to be floating in mid-air.

THE PROJECT

Patrick Aebischer, president of EPFL for the last ten years and largely credited for bringing EPFL to its present level of world recognition, explains that the university needed “a totem, a strong architectural symbol” and that no building is better suited for this purpose than a library.

“We wanted a building that exemplifies EPFL’s attitude to science, one that is open to the world, but we also needed a space that contributes to new ways of sharing knowledge,” he adds.

Twelve architects of international repute were invited to take part in the contest for the library, but “the jury was immediately taken by the SANAA proposal that clearly indicated a will to break down the walls between different fields of learning,” says Aebischer.

Seijima and Aebischer, 16 February 2010

“I knew that this building would be beautiful, but it surpasses all my expectations. Today I am a happy man,” he said at the press opening on Wednesday.

THE ARCHITECTURE

This is not the first time that the SANAA architects, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa are making world headlines. With the recent inaugurations of the New Museum in New York, a pile of cubes off-kilter and the evanescent Serpentine Pavilion in London, SANAA are the architectural flavour of the day.

“As the EPFL programme defined a meeting place for students engaged in many fields of study, we felt that everything on one floor and in one room was best,” the architects say to explain the Rolex Learning Center concept.

Not unlike the symbol of infinity, the building is a continuous loop that merges spaces dedicated to study and research with transitional areas conducive to socializing. Architecture becomes a metaphor for the endless potential of learning.

“We did not want any internal divisions so that people can circulate in an organic manner,” indicates Nishizawa, the male half of the architectural duo.

“We imagined that this type of open space might increase the possibility for new meetings or trigger new activities,” the architects explain.

With a floor area of 20.000 square metres, the centre represents the equivalent surface of five soccer pitches but you wouldn’t know it. Sloping ‘hills’, as they are called by the architects, are punctured by fourteen wells of lights, some of them  landscaped as outside garden patios at ground level.

A 'hill' as seen from above

The network of facilities includes one of Europe’s largest science libraries with half a million printed books and access to digital volumes and on-line subscriptions, the CRAFT (Center for Research and Support of Training and its Technologies) laboratory, a career centre, the student and alumni association offices, a 600-place auditorium, two restaurants and a café.

Distinctive voids bring natural lighting

‘Bubbles’ dispersed amongst the spaces offer enclosures for small groups to meet or work together.

Built to Minergie standards, the coveted Swiss label that recognizes environmental excellence, the building is bathed in natural daylight and uses an extraordinary system of gentle ventilation that comes up through invisible micro-chimneys in the carpet.

Only two areas, the restaurant and library, are equipped with refrigerating ceilings, but even they are cooled by water from the lake.

Study spaces around the library

Kazuyo Sejima, who will also curate this year’s edition of the prestigious Venice Architecture Biennale, stresses that she wanted a building “that blends into the environment and that links other constructions of the EPFL together”.

Patrick Aebischer’s avowed dream “to create a campus” is now coming together.

A DREAM THAT REQUIRES PARTNERS AND MONEY

Aebischer recognizes that his eight years on the faculty of Brown University in the US served as a source of inspiration to create the campus.

European universities, he points out, are usually in the middle of cities. The founders of EPFL, Aebischer believes, were visionaries when they moved the universities (EPFL and UNIL, the University of Lausanne) down by the lake, securing the expanses of land that would allow a campus to develop.

Furthermore the notion of campus is very important for the implementation of the Bologna accords, he stresses, since students arrive from everywhere and must find the equivalent of a new home, including housing.

“In the beginning, people were completely sceptical when I approached them with the idea of public-private partnerships to build the campus. But the secret is that you don’t go asking for money, you have to make people dream” Aebischer exclaims.

The total cost of the Rolex Learning Center is 110 million francs financed approximately half and half by Swiss federal funds and by business.

The luxury watchmaker Rolex accepted immediately to become the main sponsor of the Learning Center Jacques Baur, the Associate director of Rolex SA told Swisster.

“At least 80 of our engineers involved in research and development were trained at EPFL. Our form of sponsorship is closer to philanthropy than it is to marketing since we feel that it is a kind of pay back. We are also looking to the future” he says.

True to its vocation to further education and “Contribute to the Switzerland of tomorrow” as expressed by Robert Martin, a managing director, Credit Suisse is another major partner in the venture, as are Logitech and Bouygues Construction, whose Swiss general contractor branch, Losinger was responsible for delivering the building on time, on speck and within budget.

As for Nestlé’s participation, “We have a love story with EPFL” explains spokesperson Philip Oertlé. “That’s what happens when you put two visionaries together” he says, referring to Peter Brabeck at the head of Nestlé and Patrick Aebischer at the head of EPFL.

The pharmaceutical company, Novartis and the leading global provider of security links, SICPA, are the final contributors in the bouquet of sponsors.

“At the end of the day, it’s not about money, it’s about building a community,” Aebischer maintains.

“A new type of space where many different fields of study exchange knowledge freely and easily” is how the SANAA architects describe the centre.

Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa at press opening on 16 February

Open to students, researchers and the general public from 7am to midnight, the only fear is that the number of people who will use the Rolex Learning Center will far exceed the number expected.

The centre opens on 22 February and the official inauguration will take place on 27 May 2010.

Rolex Learning Center