The winning team – led by Éric Maria Architectes and featuring Donald Insall Associates and HTA Design – will transform the 1.15ha Bassenges Estate in Lausanne into a global research hub for EPFL.
The scheme will transform a series of historic buildings next to EPFL’s main campus into the new Bernoulli Centre for Fundamental Studies, specialising in fundamental sciences.
The Bassenges Estate currently features several 18th century buildings, including a small manor house, a ‘winegrower’s house,’ a farmer’s cottage with annexes and a large barn.
The project will restore the site and create a new base for the Bernoulli Centre for Fundamental Studies, which hosts collaborative research into mathematics, physics and computing.
Eric Maria, founder of Eric Maria Architectes, said: ‘This project follows a holistic approach, incorporating local agriculture, water reuse, renovation with regional materials and the repurposing of existing resources.
‘The project transforms the existing historic buildings into different study rooms, meeting spaces, and collaboration areas. By merging tradition with innovation, the Bernoulli Center offers flexible open spaces that accommodate a wide range of activities, from courses and seminars to community events and research collaboration.’
Francis Maude, director of Donald Insall Associates, said: ‘The regeneration of the Bassenges Estate provides a unique and exciting opportunity not only to reuse the existing 18th century buildings for the Bernoulli Centre, but to restore the original historic footprint of the site and connect to the wider EPFL campus.
‘Interventions for their change of use will enable improvements to the fabric efficiency of the buildings, introduce passive energy measures and incorporate energy regeneration and reuse.
‘The combination of teaching, co-working and research spaces within a natural garden and landscape environment is an enduring tradition within European Universities and it will be a delight to re-interpret this at Bassenges for EPFL.’
Founded in 1853, EPFL is a science and technology institution. The latest project will create an expanded site for the Bernoulli Centre, which is currently located within the EPFL main campus.
The winning masterplan will restore the site to its historic layout by restoring the hierarchy of buildings and the direct connections between them and open spaces.
New interventions which ‘celebrate the individual and collective architectural features and qualities of the buildings’ will also be delivered, along with new open spaces.
