Rolex Learning Center


The Rolex Learning Centre is the campus hub and library for the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, in Lausanne, Switzerland. Designed by the winners of 2010 Pritzker Prize, Japanese-duo SANAA, it opened on 22 February 2010.

History

and Ryue Nishizawa, partners of the Tokyo-based design firm SANAA, were selected as the lead architects in EPFL's international competition in December 2004. The team was selected among famous architects, including Pritzker Prize Laureates such as Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Jean Nouvel, Herzog & de Meuron, Ábalos & Herreros and Xaveer De Geyter.
The construction took place between 2007 and 2009. It cost 110 million Swiss francs and was funded by the Swiss government as well as by private sponsors, Rolex, Logitech, Bouygues Construction, Crédit Suisse, Nestlé, Novartis and SICPA.
The building opened on 22 February 2010 and was inaugurated on 27 May 2010.

Library

The main library, containing 500,000 printed works, is one of the largest scientific collections in Europe; four large study areas can accommodate 860 students with office space for over 100 EPFL and other employees; a multimedia library will give access to 10,000 online journals and 17,000 e-books, with advanced lending machines and systems for bibliographic search; a study centre for use by postgraduate researchers will provide access to the universityʼs major archive and research collection, and there are teaching areas including ten "bubbles" for seminars, group work and other meetings and a Language and Multimedia Centre and associated administration offices.

Main functions

On 2 April 2015, the press conference of Federica Mogherini and Mohammad Javad Zarif following the negotiations of the ministers of foreign affairs of the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, France, China, the European Union and Iran for a Comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme was held in the Learning Centre.

In popular culture

Part of the 2014 film Love Is the Perfect Crime was filmed at the EPFL Learning Centre.