Patrick Aebischer, President of the EPFL and Dominique Perrault inaugurates the new Mechnics Hall at EPFL in Lausanne!

Lausanne, May 10, 2016 - Dominique Perrault inaugurated the new Mechanics Hall at science and technology university EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), a new milestone for the evolution of the campus.

The Mechanics Hall, or ME building, dedicated to the mechanical engineering department, was built by the Zweifel + Stricker + Associates team in the early 70s, during the first phase of development of the campus. Since the early 2000s, in an effort to promote its top-level teaching, research and innovation activities, and to attract more international students, the EPFL itself undertook several redevelopment operations. The campus and the buildings were refurbished, including the Mechanics Hall which had gradually become cramped and was rapidly deteriorating.
Moreover, the remarkable design of the Rolex Learning Center – which sits in the vicinity of the mechanics hall – leaves room for multiple architectural styles, allowing for the identity of the school to be renewed and for the campus itself to become a whole new district in the greater Lausanne metropolis.    The project of the Dominique Perrault Architecte / Steiner team, which won a 2011 international competition, is to preserve the connecting axes that bridge the campus, while demolishing the aging halls. The new building, covering a total surface area of over 204,000 sq. ft., is spread over four superstructure levels and one infrastructure level. It houses the administrative offices of the department of Engineering, consisting of offices and research laboratories, as well as some office spaces for the department of Biology.   The building, which serves as a large-scale experimental playground and laboratory for research scientists, consists of two wings connected by a large central atrium. In functional terms, the wings can be considered as two separate buildings, with their own technical and circulation networks. The materials used – raw concrete and metal walls, cement and PVC floors – favor a simple black-and-white palette in matt and glossy finishes. The opaque walls and glass screens create a set of perspectives into the depths of the building, turning any walk along the corridors into an original experience. The technical networks, left apparent on the walls and ceilings, are a nod to the scientific purpose of the building. Individual offices occupy a peripheral strip along the external facade. Each office is wide open to the outside world thanks to bay windows that fill the workspaces with subdued natural light. These comfortable, luminous and spacious rooms are apt spaces for long hours of research work.   The atrium, a reception and social area serving the office spaces, is the beating heart of the building. Straight stairways and flared corridors flow diagonally from one level to the next and from one side to another, filling the central void with a blur of lines. Handrails and tubular wall-mounted lamps, accented in black, designed by Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost, add to an overall graphic effect, inspired by Piranese’s Capricci.This plan turns the atrium into a fantastic spatial experience, while reinforcing its social function, by favoring chance encounters without impeding circulation. Placed at a crossroads position on the campus, between different disciplinary fields and as an entrance point for hyper specialized technical laboratories, the atrium is conceived as an accessible door to knowledge and an empirical, experiential space.

The façades combine two distinct architectural styles in one common material, giving the building a contemporary allure while paying tribute the legacy of the 1970s. The signature metallic mesh, on the one hand, evokes the scope of mechanical engineering, while the northern façade is a direct reference to the molding envelopes of the neighboring buildings.
In addition to this brand new building, the 2011 redevelopment competition won by the Dominique Perrault Architecte / Steiner team team included challenges across the school’s campus, namely refurbishing the old library to turn it into headquarters for the EPFL (building delivered in 2013), and developing a strategy for a potential Teaching Lab. This last project is an opportunity to reconsider the operation of the campus and the use of its central circulation axis, giving it a broader urban scope.