PRECISION AND INNOVATION

The Rolex Learning Center

“We were excited by the opportunity to think about spaces where people meet, study, and create entirely new sets of knowledge.” – Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA

2010 Pritzker Architecture Prize recipients, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA unveil their latest and greatest project, the Rolex Learning Center in Switzerland.The Rolex Learning Center is above all a library and learning space devoted to the cultivation of knowledge by an array of different methods. It has one of the largest collections of scientific literature in Europe, with over 500,000 volumes. In addition, an exciting range of new pedagogical technologies in the building, as well as the layout itself, are innovations to the public’s approach to texts and learning.

Pritzker juror Lord Peter Palumbo praised Rolex Learning Center as having “a vitality and an excitement to it, as well as an originality that you don’t often see.”

Under the Rolex Learning Center’s roof will be an array of facilities, for study, teaching, research, socializing, entertainment and administration. This is a radical and highly experimental building, designed for new ways of study and interaction in the 21st century.

The Learning Center has been open to the public since February and the official inauguration ceremony will take place Thursday, May 27, 2010.

Herzog images courtesy of Alain Herzog/ EPFL, SANAA. Suzuki image courtesy of Hisao Suzuki/ EPFL, SANAA