Built on the campus of EPFL Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, The Rolex Learning Center, designed by the Japanese architectural practice SANAA, will open February 22, 2010.

The Rolex Learning Center will function as a laboratory for learning, a library with 500,000 volumes and an international cultural hub for EPFL, open to both students and the public. Spread over one single fluid space of 215,278 square feet, it provides a seamless network of services, libraries, information gathering, social spaces, spaces to study, restaurants, cafes and beautiful outdoor spaces. It is a highly innovative building, with gentle slopes and terraces, undulating around a series of internal ‘patios’, with almost invisible supports for its complex curving roof, which required completely new methods of construction.

Teaching and entrepreneur start-up office facilities side by side – that's the philosophy behind the distinctive extension to the existing 1970’s structure of the University College Vitus Bering Denmark in Horsens.

The new Innovation building is designed to sit on a brick base, in a direct continuation of the existing complex’ architecture, but from there on it bears a distinct different and unique.

The building's dynamic character is expressed via its spiral shape. On the facades, the movement is seen in the glazing strips that stretch towards the sky across the six storeys of the building and create the impression of a spiral sequence, while internally it is expressed via the main staircase in green fibre cement, which runs in a spiral form between the storeys in the unifying internal atrium. The inclined forms of the building also have the practical advantage of allowing a necessary fire escape route to be cut through the building.

Photographs by Julian Weyer

Steven Holl Architects in collaboration with BNIM Architects, has won the commission for the new art studio facility for the University of Iowa (UI) Arts campus.
The new building is to replace an original arts building from 1936, which was heavily damaged during a flood of the University of Iowa campus in June 2008. The proposed site is directly adjacent to and northwest of the Art Building West, designed by Steven Holl Architects, which since its opening in 2006 has received numerous awards, including the AIA 2007 Institute Honor Award for Architecture.

The finalists of the annual PS1 Young Architects Program, curated by The Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, were asked to present designs for temporary urban landscapes that incorporate elements of shade, water, seating, and bar areas for the expansive courtyard entrance of P.S.1. The competition program focused on designs which address sustainability, recycling, and reuse. The winning scheme by SO-IL Archtiects was selected January 22, 2010.
BIG sent us their proposal, we are featuring it in this post.

The Chicago and China offices of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) have designed an urban model showcasing integrated solutions for energy, water conservation and transit systems in Beijing’s Dawangjing District.

The SOM Plan introduces a sustainable “engine” in the form of a Central Park that would passively heat and cool the district. The plan won an international competition to guide Wangjing’s redevelopment. The Beijing Chaoyang District Planning Bureau is the client. Philip Enquist, FAIA, Partner-in-Charge of Urban Design and Planning and Peter Ruggiero, AIA, Design Partner, led the SOM team. The team collaboration was led by Beijing R&F Properties Development Co. Ltd., E-House (China) Holdings Limited and MVA Transport Consultants.

Images by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Crystal

Schmidt hammer lassen architects have won a competition for a Congress and Hotel Centre on the central harbour front of Helsingborg in Sweden, which is a 15-minute ferry trip from Elsinore in Denmark. The property development competition was won in conjunction with Swedish developer Midroc and engineering/architect consultants Sweco.

The project consists of a 16,900 m2 congress and hotel facility and 17,100 m2 housing on the most attractive area of Helsingborg – the former central ferry dock Ångfärjan in the city centre. The new facilities will play an important part in the ongoing development of the promenade running the length of the city waterfront.

The building is characterized by a deformation of the grid into a crystalline expression that has coined the nick name “The Salt Crystals”. The 12-storey hotel volume in the south east corner with its light, generic and broken facades will become the new landmark of the city.