Video: Rolex Learning Centre at EPFL, by SANAA
Destined to become the new heart of the university campus, the Rolex Learning Centre at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland is one of the main projects of the well-known Japanese office SANAA and architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa.
Take a hard-hat tour of the construction site from the comfort of your home
In an advanced stage of construction at the moment, the new Centre, which is the size of two football pitches, is a true structural and design challenge. It will include libraries, multimedia centres, cafeterias and research spaces in a – as the brief outlined - continuous layout, incorporating several views out towards the city and the nearby mountains.
In order to satisfy the client’s requirements and the building’s needs, the architects designed it using horizontally placed, parallel curved concrete slabs, which enclose the interior’s generous and completely column-free spaces. The large halls feature glass-enclosed patios, to provide extra natural light.
SANAA’s 'constructed landscape', as the Rolex Learning Centre has been described, was partly funded by the famous watch-manufacturing company, and is scheduled for completion this summer, with an official opening to follow up in the next academic year.
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
David Goldblatt captures intimate portraits of Johannesburg during apartheidBetween 1948 and 2016, David Goldblatt returned periodically to Fietas, a suburb in the west of Johannesburg’s city centre, to photograph the impact of apartheid legislation on its residents and landscape. The resulting photographs have now been collected and published for the first time
-
Faena New York just landed in the Big Apple – and it's an excuse for a good timeArgentine hotelier Alan Faena’s first New York address serves up high-octane hospitality with a dash of leopard print
-
These vintage American motels will have you longing for the open road‘Vintage Motels’ documents how the humble roadside stopover has evolved into a design-led destination for a new generation of travellers
-
Sustainability underpins new Rolex Pavilion at the Venice Architecture BiennaleDesigned by architect Mariam Issoufou, the Rolex Pavilion is full of sustainably-minded soul – here’s what to expect from the building and the exhibit
-
Royal De Versailles Rolex boutique in Toronto wows with dynamic façadeRoyal de Versaille’s Rolex boutique in Toronto features a dynamic, wavy façade in CNC-cut limestone created by local architecture studio Partisans
-
Cultural exchange: Rolex mentor David Chipperfield pairs with Swiss protégé -
Pass the baton: David Chipperfield to mentor on Rolex Arts InitiativeAnnounced at a ceremony in Mexico City last weekend, David Chipperfield is named as the 2016 – 2017 architecture mentor of Rolex's inspiring Arts Initiative.