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Architects: Karamuk Kuo
- Year: 2018
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Photographs:Laurian Ghinitoiu
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Manufacturers: dormakaba, Veralubois
Text description provided by the architects. Located on the University of Lausanne campus, the compact form unites four public and private institutions to create a new center of competence for researching and teaching sports science. Its quiet exterior belies a bustling beehive of exchange inside. This new building provides diverse spaces for collective use, promoting formal and informal collaborations between the organizations while being open and inviting to the university.
Whenever possible, each building component does double duty. The sculptural inner core is simultaneously structural and experiential. It also conceals all the services and physical testing labs while forming a landscape of terraces. Visual transparency and daylight animate these spaces for informal work and exchange.
A flexible ring of offices surrounds this atrium. Light-weight partitions ensure possible reconfiguration for the many types of office and meeting rooms. Each institution can therefore maintain its privacy while profiting from the synergy of sharing a building. What appears at first glance as a simple building unfolds into a series of rich experiences, from intimate to grand, that allow each user a choice.
The building engages with low and high-tech solutions to achieve Minergie-P eco-sustainable standards and is the first building to receive the SméO certification. Thermally-activated slabs using renewable lake water, together with natural ventilation ensure year-round comfort with low energy consumption.
The depth of the office ring allows for daylight at all workspaces as well as proximity to the outdoors while the rationality ensures long-term flexibility for reconfiguration. In addition, 70% of the concrete is recycled and many products are locally sourced, minimizing the carbon footprint. The economy of means translates into a highly performative yet cost-effective building.
