SANAA designs Lausanne facility

The Rolex Learning Center, one of Europe’s most ambitious new buildings for learning, designed by the internationally acclaimed Japanese architectural practice, SANAA, opened at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale (EPFL) in Lausanne on February 22.

EPFL is one of Europe’s leading centres for study and research into science, technology, engineering and architecture. The campus brings together over 10,000 students, professors, researchers and entrepreneurs on a landmark site on Lake Geneva in Switzerland.

The Rolex Learning Center, designed by SANAA, is a fully integrated learning environment, providing a seamless network of services, libraries, information gathering, social spaces, spaces to study, restaurants, cafes and beautiful outdoor spaces. It is a highly experimental building, essentially one fluid space, with gentle slopes and terraces, undulating around a series of internal ‘patios’, with almost invisible supports for its complex curving roof. The Center has an official opening ceremony planned for May 2010.

Japanese architectural practice SANAA (Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates) was established in 1995 by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa. Their projects are open stages which make visible the connection between the built structure, the users and the natural environment. SANAA’s most recent major project is the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.

Other notable projects include the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa in Japan (2004), the Toledo Museum of Arts, Ohio (2006), the Serpentine Gallery Summer Pavilion in London (2009) and the Louvre-Lens in France due to open in 2012.