Description

The topographic architecture of the Rolex Learning Center generates a unique environment for innovative learning concepts based on research conducted at the EPFL Institute for Pedagogical Research and Support (Centre de Recherche et d’Appui pour la Formation et ses Technologies – CRAFT), while providing a research and experimentation laboratory for the study of current learning behaviors and the implementation of future pedagogical technologies. Serving a population of 7,000 students and 4,000 researchers, the core components of the Learning Center include a large scientific library housing 500,000 volumes of scientific literature, a multi-media library offering access to 10,000 online journals and 17,000 e-books, a language and multi-media center, study and teaching facilities, a 600-seat amphitheater and the CRAFT laboratory. A cybercafé, multi-media bookstore, cafeteria and a restaurant overlooking Lake Geneva complement the space program and enhance the experiential qualities.

Indicative of the Oblique Function Theory (La fonction oblique) devised in 1966 by the French architect Claude Parent and the French theorist, philosopher and urban planner Paul Virilio, who promoted the idea of the inclined plane in architecture enhancing the relationship between the built environment and the occupant, the undulating floor plate, in excess of 20,000 m², generates a continuous and seemingly boundary-free landscape. The user is forced to engage physically with the architecture, formed of valleys and mounds, by ascending and descending slopes, and sensing acceleration and resistance due to the oblique angle formed between the body’s gravitational vector and the inclined walking surface, a phenomenon non-existent in a level environment. A multi-faceted inhabitable circulation fabric, into which the many program elements are woven, not only furthers the amalgamation of architecture and user as imagined by Parent and Virilio, but also invites interdisciplinary discourse and varying forms and levels of sociability.

Navigating the undulations of the floor, the user experiences a dynamic environment with constantly shifting spatial and experiential qualities, nuanced by the travel of sound waves, the infiltration of light, the framing of views, and the phenomenon of emerging and vanishing horizons. Space characteristics reach from introverted and silent areas for individual learning and thought to areas suitable for group studies, discussions and presentations.

Complex shell structures, innately suitable for column-free spans and slender construction, are commonly associated with roofs. The Rolex Learning Center, however, reverses the concept and employs the geometric and structural principles of concrete shells for the construction of the floor plate with the exceptional effect of a sinuously curving and rolling topography, almost entirely disengaged from the surrounding ground on which it bears. By vertically transposing the ruled surface of the floor plate into the roof plane, a single-story, floor-to-ceiling glazed volume takes shape, creating the envisioned space continuum on the interior while providing reference to the alpine landscape in the distance. Fourteen circularly formed patios of varying shape and diameter are punctured into the expansive rectangular floor plate, allowing the flow of daylight into the core of the space and supporting cross ventilation.

Located in the geographical middle of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, the Learning Center is entered from a patio in the center of the structure, emphasizing its function as a hub and meeting place with omnidirectional openness to all users instilled with the vision that only interdisciplinary collaboration and dialogue can advance humanity.

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Originally published in: Nolan Lushington, Wolfgang Rudorf, Liliane Wong, Libraries: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2016.