The elite boarding house on the shores of Lake Geneva, founded in 1880, has produced many royalty and children of celebrities during its existence. So, located on the territory of the school's historic campus, the Paul and Henri Carnali Center for the Arts (father and son who became the founders of the educational institution) found itself in a very conservative and unremarkable architectural environment. Accordingly, Bernard Chumi, who was born not far from these places, from the very beginning was looking for a form for his object that would bring a fresh, bold stream to this stronghold of strict traditions, but would not break too much the usual, established image.
As a result, an almost abstract hemispherical volume was created in the open area. Despite the obvious analogies with an alien spacecraft, it is quite modest, even neutral, and therefore does not disturb the "calmness" of a measured school life. At the same time, thanks to its soft, smooth lines, the building is very accurately inscribed in the natural relief, and due to fragments of solid glazing in the lower part, it is open to the environment. Finally, in plan, the center resembles drawings of architectural rosettes, clearly referring to the name of the guesthouse.
The lower, concrete part of the structures accommodates training, rehearsal and office premises. They are located mainly around the perimeter of the circle to get enough natural light. In the very center, in order to achieve maximum height, the actual concert hall with 900 seats is located, which can also be used for lectures and film screenings. To the right is an experimental theater space (black box) with a library above it, and to the left is a large rehearsal room. Grouped rectangular volumes form around themselves a free public space with a restaurant, cafe, training center (they also have separate entrances) and a spacious foyer at the entrance to the hall.
The parallelepiped of the concert hall is actually practically independent. A branch of the railway runs next to the school and, in order to dampen the vibration, it was "suspended" on special springs (Chumi's complex engineering was helped by the specialists of the Arup company). And for the decoration they used an unusual material - oriented strand boards made of wood chips glued with a special resin. The authors of the project claim that such panels are used for the first time for fine - and even acoustic - finishing. There are two main reasons for such a bold decision: firstly, the modest budget of the entire project, amounting to about 45 million euros, made it necessary to turn to inexpensive local materials. Secondly, the Swiss sustainable building code excludes the use of air conditioning systems. As a result, the hall is ventilated in a natural way: air enters from below, through the slots in the places where the springs are attached, and is drawn out through the holes in the ceiling. The absence of noise from forced ventilation and the slats docked at different angles on the panels additionally improved the acoustics of the hall.
This entire structure is covered with a hemispherical steel dome with a diameter of 80 m. In addition to the visual effect, it additionally protects all internal rooms from the sound of passing trains and other external noises. The glossy surface, with an area of almost 4500 m2, is assembled from 5000 plates. They reflect not only the sun's rays, making the building shine mysteriously, but also small stone buildings on the campus, emphasizing the friendly nature of the new building.
