SANAA | Rolex Learning Center | Lausanne, Switzerland

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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SANAA Designs Artificial Landscape

Students and faculty at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, will begin hiking the internal topography of the new Rolex Learning Center when it opens on February 22.
Designed by SANAA, the Japanese firm headed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, the 398,000-square-foot library and campus hub presents visitors with a concrete floor that slopes and swells like the surrounding Swiss landscape. People with mobility problems or those just feeling tired can take specially designed “inclined elevators,” glass boxes adapted from standard lift design.
The architects’ goal was to create one fluid space where students and researchers from the school’s various disciplines (science, engineering, technology, and architecture) can mingle in an environment with almost no traditional partitions. Instead of using steps, stairs, or walls, SANAA separated different functional areas by placing them in floor valleys or tucked between the five outdoor “patios” cut within the building’s rectangular footprint. These ovoid patios, which are surrounded by glazing, provide a variety of landscaped places for socializing and bring daylight into all parts of the one-story facility.
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Serpentine Summer Pavilion 2009 | London | SANAA

Dates: 12 Jul– 18 Oct 2009
Location: Kensington Gardens, west London
Contact Serpentine Gallery: +44 (0)20 7402 6075

The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2009 is designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of leading Japanese architecture practice SANAA. The Pavilion opens on 12 July on the Serpentine Gallery’s lawn in west London.

Describing the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion structure SANAA architects said: ‘The Pavilion is floating aluminium, drifting freely between the trees like smoke. The reflective canopy undulates across the site, expanding the park and sky. Its appearance changes according to the weather, allowing it to melt into the surroundings. It works as a field of activity with no walls, allowing uninterrupted view across the park and encouraging access from all sides. It is a sheltered extension of the park where people can read, relax and enjoy lovely summer days.’
Sejima and Nishizawa have created a stunning Pavilion that resembles a reflective cloud or a floating pool of water, sitting atop a series of delicate columns. The metal roof structure varies in height, wrapping itself around the trees in the park, reaching up towards the sky and sweeping down almost to the ground in various places. Open and ephemeral in structure, its reflective materials make it sit seamlessly within the natural environment, reflecting both the park and sky around it.
The Serpentine Pavilion will be SANAA Architects’ first built structure in the UK and the ninth commission in the Gallery’s annual series of Pavilions, the world’s first and most ambitious architectural programme of its kind that annually gives preeminent architects their debut in this country and brings the best of contemporary architecture to London for everyone to enjoy.
Via e-Architect