The Rolex Learning Center, Ecole Polytechnique Federale
Lausanne, Switzerland · 2009
Photo · Photo by Hisao Suzuki
A precedent for fluid, undulating concrete slabs and continuous glass facades that merge floor, wall, and ceiling into a single topographical landscape.
- What we like about this project
- The floor slab itself bends upward to form a ramped interior landscape visible from the exterior.
Materials
- exposed-concrete
- glass
- steel
Visual identifiers
- undulating-slab
- continuous-glazing
- concrete-canopy
- circular-cutout
- curved-facade
Style tags
- minimalist
- organic-modernism
- structural-expressionism
Visual tags
- organic-formalism
- fluid-geometry
- structural-concrete
- transparency
- institutional
- night-shot
- Geometry
- An undulating, organic concrete slab system that lifts and dips, creating a series of sweeping curves, circular cutouts, and a fluid, continuous floor-and-roof profile.
- Facade system
- Floor-to-ceiling structural glass facade with minimal steel mullions following a curved concrete slab edge.
- Structural guess
- Post-tensioned shell concrete slabs supported by minimal columns and arch action.
- Spatial scale
- A vast, low-slung institutional scale that stretches horizontally, with floor-to-ceiling glazing spanning approximately one to one-and-a-half stories.
- Lighting
- Dusk lighting with a deep blue sky contrasting against the bright, evenly distributed white interior illumination glowing through the continuous glass facade.
- Atmosphere
- A serene, futuristic glow as the building's undulating form appears to float over the dark ground.
- Environmental context
- Set on a flat open campus landscape, with the building's undulating form creating its own artificial topography.
- Spatial experience
- The building hovers above the ground plane, creating a sheltered, cavernous underbelly with circular light wells before rising into a highly transparent, single-volume interior.
- Composition rhythm
- A continuous, sweeping horizontal curve interrupted only by thin, vertical steel mullions.
- Style reading
- Late-twentieth-century Japanese minimalism and organic structural expressionism
- Program
- University library and learning center
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- exposed-concrete, glass, steel
- Visual identifiers
- undulating-slab, continuous-glazing, concrete-canopy, circular-cutout, curved-facade
- Style tags
- minimalist, organic-modernism, structural-expressionism
- Visual tags
- organic-formalism, fluid-geometry, structural-concrete, transparency, institutional, night-shot
- Geometry
- An undulating, organic concrete slab system that lifts and dips, creating a series of sweeping curves, circular cutouts, and a fluid, continuous floor-and-roof profile.
- Facade system
- Floor-to-ceiling structural glass facade with minimal steel mullions following a curved concrete slab edge.
- Structural guess
- Post-tensioned shell concrete slabs supported by minimal columns and arch action.
- Spatial scale
- A vast, low-slung institutional scale that stretches horizontally, with floor-to-ceiling glazing spanning approximately one to one-and-a-half stories.
- Lighting
- Dusk lighting with a deep blue sky contrasting against the bright, evenly distributed white interior illumination glowing through the continuous glass facade.
- Atmosphere
- A serene, futuristic glow as the building's undulating form appears to float over the dark ground.
- Environmental context
- Set on a flat open campus landscape, with the building's undulating form creating its own artificial topography.
- Spatial experience
- The building hovers above the ground plane, creating a sheltered, cavernous underbelly with circular light wells before rising into a highly transparent, single-volume interior.
- Composition rhythm
- A continuous, sweeping horizontal curve interrupted only by thin, vertical steel mullions.
- Style reading
- Late-twentieth-century Japanese minimalism and organic structural expressionism
- Program
- University library and learning center
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture