EPFL honored by Wallpaper* Magazine
© Alain Herzog
Wallpaper*, the “bible” in the areas of design and fashion, has named the Rolex Learning Center the best new public building of 2010. Two EPFL doctoral students in architecture have also been distinguished among the international candidates.
The 2011 design awards of the prestigious British magazine Wallpaper* have been published. The Rolex Learning Center, the heart of the EPFL, has been awarded first place in the category “best new public building”.
The SANAA agency thus continues to collect prizes and distinctions, after being awarded in 2010 the Pritzker Prize http://www.pritzkerprize.com/, equivalent to the Nobel prize in architecture
It’s worth mentioning that Wallpaper* magazine has also honored two EPFL doctoral students in architecture, Estelle Lépine and Shin Koseki, in the international category Next Generation.
Estelle Lépine’s thesis on the high altitude refuge “l’Aiguille du Goûter” on Mont-Blanc in Haute Savoie, is about the impact of energy standards on buildings and their users.
Shin Koseki has worked on a model tower in Manhattan, cleverly interconnected to the urban traffic. His thesis deals with the implementation of an economic value in the production of a new urban model.
The jury of the Wallpaper* design awards was enthusiastic about the Rolex Learning Center, talking of a “triumph of structure and form”. In addition to the work accomplished by the SANAA Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa agency, the jury also pointed out the challenges which Bollinger and Grohmann, the construction engineers, had to face when building its daring shapes, in particular in casting 4300 cubic meters of concrete – a process which lasted many dozens of hours.
The Design Awards jury includes architect Mario Bellini, musician and pop culture icon Pharrel Williams, designer Raf Simons, musician and film maker Michael Nyman and also the British artist Marc Quinn.