Rolex Learning Center (EPFL École Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne)

The learning centre for the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), in Switzerland, is a new kind of building. The whole structure, which in itself is like a small campus, is a one-storey slab undulating into hills and valleys and perforated with open-air atriums. What is absolutely radical about it is the way that the different zones are all completely open across this landscape, divided not by walls but by topographical horizons. “You can feel a very huge space but you cannot see the whole area,” explains Sejima, referring to how the floor rises up to cut off the view. Like the museum in Kanazawa, the EPFL building can be entered from a number of approaches, and the routes through it are free-form rather than channelled.

EPFL takes the practice’s preoccupation with fluidity and transparency to its logical limits. Again, this sense of openness is a Japanese quality taken to extremes, one that, Sejima explains, derives from the tatami floor mat: “We have some tendency to feel space – even if there is no wall we have floor mats and so there is some space between you and me. In Europe, the space [is] made by the wall and by the chairs but the Japanese just put the mat.”

EPFL is like one large mat, but it is also the most literal expression yet of SANAA’s inclination to describe its buildings as “parks”. “We can expect many people to stay together and at the same time find some personal space by themselves,” says Sejima, echoing Nishizawa’s description of the park, “anybody can join, anybody can stay.”

1. Biblioteca / areas de información científica 6.160 m2
incluye:
- recepción
- máquinas de préstamo
- biblioteca multimedia
- áreas de trabajo grupal y relajación
- coleción de investigación
- servicios internos para 35-40 miembros

2. Zonas de enseñanza 1.150 m2
incluye:
- habitación para conferencias
- oficinas CRAFT (Centre de Recherche et d’Appui pour la Formation et ses Technologies)
- oficinas y recepción del Centro de Lenguaje y Multimedia

3. Zonas de residencia 1.875 m2
incluye:
- hall principal, mesón de ayuda, punto de encuentro
- cybercafé
- cafetería autoservicio
- restaurante
- recepción
- tienda y oficinas de la asociación de estudiantes
- secretariado de la EPFL Graduates’ Association
- tienda de merchandising de EPFL

4. Zona cultural 1.690 m2
incluye:
- exhibiciones
- zonas multipropósitos, (conferencias, entretenimiento, …)
- multimedia bookshop
- taquilla de venta de billetes
- PPUR (Presses Polytechniques Universitaires Romandes, the university press)

5. Zonas de servicio 3.500 m2
incluye:
- material de oficinas, correos
- archivos de la EPFL
- area de mantención
- estacionamiento subterráneo
- estacionamiento exterior

Total de las zonas de trabajo: 14.375 m2

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etiquetas: concrete , kazuyo sejima , ryue nishizawa , sanaa

guardado en mis listas: use_EDUCATION ,use_LANDSCAPE ,use_LIBRARY_BIBLIOTECA ,use_URBANISM_URBANISMO

26 de noviembre de 2008 añadir comentario me gusta compartir

An interview with SANAA
October 5, 2008

New Museum, New York City which opened in December 2007

SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa) is one of the most en vogue architecture office in Tokyo. They recently designed the New Museum in Manhattan. They also designed the Learning Center at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Here is an excerpt from an interview we made for the Taiwanese magazine EGG, which published a special issue on SANAA in Summer 2007. For the full interview click here.

Gallery space in the New Museum

How does the New Museum project in New York relate to the city?

N: New Museum was a difficult project. It is difficult for a museum to be so open to the outside. It needs walls to hang up the paintings. An enclosed space is necessary. One of the striking features of the New Museum is that it is right in the middle of the city. It is not in the outskirts like many museums. Also it doesn’t exhibit classical art, it is very contemporary. This is why they wanted to be in the middle of the city. So the question for us was how to open up the museum in this context.

So how did you manage?

N: We opened up the ground floor, people can get in and out for free, go to the cafe or the bookstore.

S: The design of the New Museum is based on the concept of shifting box, which allows us to create an open skyline. The building literally opens up to the sky. The shifting boxes create terraces allowing people to go in and out in the middle of the building.

N: As people go up the atmosphere changes. Each floor has a different relationship to the city and offers a different experience. The ground level is very messy, in direct contact with street life. From the top we can see the skyline of New York and the Chrysler building. Of course the clients wanted walls to exhibit art, but we wanted windows because the view is so interesting!

In Japan buildings are typically not built to last more than 20 or 30 years, whereas in Europe architects don’t usually think about their work as temporary. How do you view your work in time?

N: Most of the Roman buildings are gone, except for a few bridges and the Pantheon which are still standing. In Japan some ancient temples remain thanks to maintenance. We expect our buildings to stand for a really long time, but I cannot say forever. Maybe a hundred years at the maximum. But the city has a longer life span. The city lives through many generations.

S: With many changes.

N: Yes, I feel nothing changes in European cities. The notion is that the city must preserve the same form forever. I go to Asian cities and I see everything changed since the last time. The population is growing. The life of the people is changing and the city is changing with it. In China and Tokyo I see many things happening, many changes. This is like moving with the life. This is a very different viewpoint. In Europe the idea is that cities must stay the same, in Asia cities must change. I cannot say which one is the good view.

Tokyo is the biggest city in the world and yet it is often described as a collection of small villages. What is your idea of Tokyo, thinking specifically about the notion of scale from very small to extremely big?

S: I use a very limited part of Tokyo, so in this sense Tokyo feels like a village. I cannot say I have an overall image of Tokyo. Physically I cannot tell what are the boundaries of Tokyo.

N: Tokyo appears to be very much disorganized but actually it is a city which works really well. There is no train delay. Every morning huge crowds are moved in a very orderly way from one point to the other. Very few crimes are committed in Tokyo. It is actually very orderly, even if the landscape looks disorderly. Some Westerners come to Tokyo and say this is chaos! Maybe it is true but people manage it very well.

S: It is a chaotic but also extremely dynamic place. Somehow it looks generic and not well organized but so many things happen in Tokyo. One bad aspect of Tokyo is that people cannot spend time without money, which is also related to the physical reality of the city. But since the economy was bad for so long, we gradually learned how to enjoy the city without much money!

etiquetas: kazuyo sejima , sanaa

guardado en mis listas: EUROPA_suiza ,arquitectura-ingeniería

26 de noviembre de 2008 añadir comentario me gusta compartir

etiquetas: arqui , lausana , suiza

cambios hace 2 días añadir comentario me gusta compartir