A large dormitory on the campus of Lausanne École Polytechnique and the city university, close to the Rolex SANAA training center, was conceived in 2013 as part of Lausanne's bid to host the 3rd Winter Youth Olympic Games in January 2020. At the same time, a building for almost 1000 students and specialists invited by universities was supposed to increase the stock of such housing in a city where it is in short supply by a third. The customer was the Pension Fund (fund) of the canton of Vaud; the project budget, including the purchase of land and the construction of a pedestrian and road bridge leading to the building, cost 156 million francs.
The architectural bureau Dürig AG won the architectural competition 2014–2015; the project is underway, in 2017–2019, it was taken over by IttenBrechbühl. The facility was commissioned in October 2019, and this January it housed 1,800 young athletes - for the first time in the history of the Youth Games, all participants lived in the same building. Then it was planned to slowly complete the interior decoration by the beginning of the school year, but in March, due to the pandemic, the Pension Fund promptly provided a building to accommodate medical personnel. Now work in the interior has been continued again, and the hostel will receive the first tenants on schedule.
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zooming 1/3 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
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zooming 2/3 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
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zooming 3/3 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
The shape of the large ring (its total area is 32,000 m2, the outer diameter is 137 m, the inner diameter is 105 m, the height is 27 m) allows the Vortex ("funnel") to simultaneously appear as an ideal city and part of the landscape - since it is so different in size and appearance from other buildings - an open and "closed" structure. Although the project is “sociable”: there are six staircase and elevator nodes in the building, but the main means of circulation (in the literal sense) is a spiral ramp 2.8 km long, where all the entrance doors go. Its incline is only 1%, so the way up takes about 25 minutes. On the roof, in addition to solar panels, there were places for observation terraces and a cafe-bar, that is, students have where to get acquainted, communicate, meet by chance and spend time together.
The round courtyard with a diameter of 105 m is more like a park with green "steps". All entrances lead there, the infrastructure of the first tier is facing: a canteen, a kindergarten, a conference center, shops and service establishments. Other floors have laundry and study areas.
In total, Vortex accommodates 941 people in 712 "apartments" that range in size from separate rooms (for which there are shared kitchens) and studios to blocks with two, three and four bedrooms. This number also includes accommodation for invited specialists - the same types, except for individual rooms.
The main building material is concrete, but glass and wood are visible from the outside. Wood is mainly used for frames and doors, as well as facade cladding, but some of the facades are completely self-supporting wooden.
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zooming 1/6 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
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zooming 2/6 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
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zooming 3/6 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
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zooming 4/6 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
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zooming 5/6 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
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zooming 6/6 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
The use of BIM, modular design and prefabricated parts, including factory-made washrooms, helped speed up and simplify design and construction. Among the environmental components of the project is a heat pump based on Lake Geneva water coming from a depth of 60 meters.
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zooming 1/6 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
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zooming 2/6 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
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zooming 3/6 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
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zooming 4/6 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
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zooming 5/6 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
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zooming 6/6 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
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zooming 1/5 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
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zooming 2/5 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
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zooming 3/5 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
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zooming 4/5 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
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zooming 5/5 Vortex Student Residence © 2019 / Architectes Dürig AG & IttenBrechbühl SA / Photo: Fernando Guerra, Lisbon
