In February, the Rolex Learning Centre, a project by the Japanese architecture firm Saana, at the EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne,) which will serve as a laboratory for learning, as a library with 500,000 volumes and as an international cultural centre, open to both students and the public. In approximately 20,000 square metres, the centre provides a network of services, libraries, information points, areas for socialising and studying, restaurants, cafés and open-air spaces. It is a highly innovative building, characterised by slopes and terraces, winding around a series of internal courtyards, with a complex undulating roof supported by almost invisible supports, for the construction of which innovative construction methods were developed. Rolex's participation in the project is the fruit of a long-standing partnership with EPFL in the field of research in the fields of materials science and micro-technology applied to watch design, and of a philanthropic and cultural tradition expressed through initiatives such as the Rolex Awards for Enterprise and the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.
