SANAA Debuts Rolex Learning Center in Switzerland

The Rolex Learning Center will function as a laboratory for learning, a library with 500,000 volumes, and an international cultural hub for EPFL, open to both students and the public.

Annie Block -- Interior Design, 3/1/2010 12:00:00 AM

Rolex Learning Center / EPFL designed by SANAA; image ©Hisao Suzuki

Europe is fertile ground these days for Kasuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa/SANAA. The Japanese firm’s cloudlike pavilion graced London’s Serpentine Gallery last summer. Their similarly amorphous Rolex Learning Center at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne bowed last month in Switzerland. Its 161,000 square feet of multimedia centers, research facilities, and civic spaces are capped by undulating shells of reinforced concrete, portions of which are cut out with large circular apertures. The center opened February 22.


Rolex Learning Center / EPFL designed by SANAA; image ©Hisao Suzuki


Rolex Learning Center / EPFL designed by SANAA; image ©Hisao Suzuki


Rolex Learning Center / EPFL designed by SANAA; image ©Hisao Suzuki

Photos courtesy of Rolex Learning Center.