‘It is basically a curved slab with a lot of compression forces’, structural engineer Manfred Grohmann said about the Rolex Learning Center designed by Tokyo-based architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa/ SANAA in Lausanne.

The winner of the architectural competition launched in February 2004 for the Learning Center is at home with ambitious ventures. Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa from SANAA in Tokyo have projects all over the world have completed projects in Asia, Europe and the United States. Some of their latest structures include the Design School Zollverein in Essen Germany, and 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa Japan. The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City has been completed in December 2007.

‘Point of entry to Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, the Learning Center will be a place to learn, to obtain information, and to live. A place where virtual and physical components combine to provide facilitated access to knowledge. Its very concept includes the flexibility and growth potential to evolve and follow, in due course, the pedagogical, social and technical trends of the School. It will be built in an entirely redefined and open South sector, integrating areas of relaxation, providing a breath of air within the new context of a significantly built-up campus.’

The new building in Lausanne is part of the university campus. It is called ‘Rolex Learning Center’ as on third of the building cost is covered by the watch manufacturer. The 90 million Swiss Frank that the building costs is all paid for by private parties. The government doesn’t contribute anything. Manfred Grohmann: ‘Lausanne isn’t a bad place to be.’

In the Rolex Learning Center the advantages of the large floor– free movement and transparency– are put to extreme. The building is one, large, curly floor that is left completely open. Perfectly round courtyards provide light and focus the continuous space, which is further only minimally differentiated.

According to Manfred Grohmann one of the ideas behind the design is that the technical landscape, formed by the building, in the architectural experience overlaps with the natural landscape, the mountains of the Alps. Looking out through one of the courtyards, on a high point on the learning center’s landscape, on the foreground one looks at the curved roof of the building, while at the background one looks at the mountains.

The challenge in the construction of the building was the huge spans of the concrete floors. The span itself wouldn’t be such a problem, if the Japanese architects didn’t have the wish that the load-bearing construction would remain invisible. In the words of Manfred Grohmann: ‘They wanted zero detail.’ An enormous truss therefore was no option.

The floors had to be constructed like big domes: low, broad domes. In the analysis of the construction two issues arose. First the dome should be stopped from spreading. Like done in some churches, a steel string at the base of the dome provided a solution. Secondly: ‘We had a buckling problem’, Manfred Grohmann said. The slenderness of the floor in relation to its long span made it unstable. After considering and researching various options, the problem was eventually solved with massive steel reinforcements in the top- and bottom-layer of the floors. The reinforcement consists of steel bars with a diameter of 50 mm. At the base of the dome they had to be welded to a steel plate to prevent the bars from crumbling the concrete floor.

In the middle of the main arch the concrete is 80 centimeter thick. An additional 20 centimeters is used for the installations. To create an exact mold to pour the concrete on, 1458 different wooden ‘boxes’ were prefabricated and aligned on site.

//Here is the vision of the future Learning Center by the two laureates:

‘The EPFL Learning Center is a center for exchange and exploration of ideas for everyone. It functions as a catalyst for the breeding of new relationships both within the academic realm and with society.

This is a place that will be full of unintended encounters, where you might bump into an old friend, become inspired by another work group, or discover your favourite book. People will feel connected in the large open space but when privacy is desired, enclosed areas are provided for engaged activities.

All functions are contained in a large one-room landscape filled with daylight and access to natural ventilation, creating very interior spaces. The building sits low on the ground so as not to disturb the views towards the lake. On the ground level, below the slab, people can pass through, arrive at main entry and at other various patios and event areas.

The Learning Center has a clear access organization with one main entry. The spaces within are loosely defined by contours, light wells and patios of various scales to create atmospheres from wide-open public spaces to quiet and private areas. The different levels and openings allow for views towards the lake and landscapes outside but also to the activities and landscapes within. This enables visitors to quickly locate themselves within the center and provides frequent opportunities to see and feel connected to the activities of learning and culture at once.

The gently undulating structure has been relined in a parallel process-searching for an ideal spatial quality and an efficient structure. Finite element analysis was used to derive an optimum geometry to enclose maximum space with minimum material. The result is a 600mm reinforced-concrete-shell structure spanning approximately 80m. This concrete is also useful as a thermal mass to help increase user comfort. The gentle undulating shape ensures local wind breathing by low wind resistance; local over and under pressures which activate cross ventilation of the building through the landscape lightwells. The spaces underneath become useful spaces, when external temperatures are not extreme.

The Learning Center is located centrally on the green area of the south sector and inhabits a low-density rectangular footprint. It is sited so as to be near to both existing and future population centers [EPFL, UNIL and future student housing] yet leave a percentage of the south sector clear, allowing for future development. Large courtyard gardens provide the campus with green space regardless of future densification. Bus and personal transport routes are reorganized to arrive within the perimeter of the Learning Center, further blurring the distinction between building and landscape.’

//Excerpt from the Experts Committee’s report on the SANAA project:

‘The project offers an interesting prolongation of and analogy with the philosophy adopted during the first stage of EPFL construction: importance of itinerary, movement, interior courtyards with different surroundings, atmospheres, richness of vegetation, uniqueness and unity whilst still creating diversity. . . The proposed program offers a new living space, opens up the possibility of new teaching approaches, everything being integrated into one single building as place of assembly and breeding-ground for enriching encounters and synergies…’

The Rolex Learning Center will be finished in the autumn of 2009.

For more information about the competition and the project visit: www.learningcenter.epfl.ch.

For more pictures of the construction site visit: www.mediatheque.epfl.ch.