For "Philo," Bernard Tschumi Architects proposes flexible classrooms and laboratories that facilitate the creation of spontaneous workspaces in this building dedicated to new forms of learning and teaching, which features: a Fabrication Lab, a Space for Start-ups or Incubators, and a Presentation Hall for events. The partitions in these spaces can be moved flexibly, allowing for multiple configurations.
One of the project’s key concepts is dynamic circulation: horizontal and vertical walkways intersect in a central atrium that functions as a covered public plaza, featuring a spiral staircase and two double-helix slides that energize the space. Along the perimeter, the classrooms open outward, changing in color and form throughout the year, thus creating a building that expands and reflects its ever-changing surroundings.
"Philo" by Bernard Tschumi. Photograph by Iwan Baan.
Project description by Bernard Tschumi Architects
A key feature of the new building is its dynamic circulation concept. Vertical and horizontal pathways generate movement and intersect the central atrium, which acts like a covered public square. The atrium is surrounded by three concentric walkways. The first walkway runs directly along the four levels of the atrium; the middle one distributes the various classrooms, while the outer walkway acts as a continuous balcony, providing an extension to the classrooms in good weather.
Philo hosts five levels of classrooms, laboratories, and programs to support student innovation, including a Fabrication Lab, a Start-up or Incubator Space, and a Pitch Room for events, organized around a grand atrium with a spiral staircase and two toboggan slides in a double-helix configuration.
Classrooms, labs, and circulation spaces are designed to maximize flexibility. Partitions can be moved or removed to allow for multiple configurations of 90 classrooms. Such flexibility will maximize the building’s future utility and limit embodied carbon.
Informal zones scattered throughout the building promote spontaneous interactions among students, teachers, resident entrepreneurs, and guests. On the perimeter, classrooms open onto balconies and small gardens that encourage exchange and collaboration.
The circular structure enters into a conversation with the historical campus and the adjacent metal-domed concert hall completed by Bernard Tschumi in 2014. The new scientific and entrepreneurial counterpart to the arts center raises the architectural question: How to establish a dialogue without one building overshadowing the other, so that the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts?
Philo uses a similar material palette to the earlier Carnal Hall: steel, concrete, wood, and glass. The shared vocabulary unifies the two buildings yet allows each to express its own identity and relationship to their common context. A notable difference is Philo’s planted exterior walkways, which change color with the seasons.
The aluminum façade uses triple glass and 2 mm-thick stainless steel-edged panels. The horizontal bands of planted balconies, combined with the tinted glass and exterior roller blinds, help protect the envelope.
The cupola covers the 30 m diameter atrium with a minimal curved-steel tube structure. The curvature allows for lightness, and electro-chrome glass keeps the building open to the sky, reducing solar heat gains in summer while allowing sunlight into the atrium.
Regarding its sustainability features, cylindrical designs are inherently efficient, offering a high internal volume relative to the total envelope area. While natural ventilation is possible, air renewal is mechanically controlled to limit energy loss. Heating and cooling are achieved via heat pumps using water from the adjacent Lake Geneva. Photovoltaic panels on the green roof provide much of the energy used throughout the building.
Overall, in the words of the client, the building is "a forward-looking educational tool that embodies Le Rosey’s ambition to pioneer new pathways in learning."
