A new global research hub: Donald Insall Associates amongst international team to transform the Bassenges Estate in Lausanne, Switzerland

Through an international design competition, EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) has selected Éric Maria Architectes, Donald Insall Associates, and HTA Design to transform the Bassenges Estate into the Bernoulli Centre for Fundamental Studies. 

World-class science and technology institution EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne, has announced the appointment of an international team to transform the Bassenges complex into a collaborative hub for academia in the area of fundamental sciences.  

Geneva-based Éric Maria Architectes will lead the team, in collaboration with UK-based practices Donald Insall Associates as Conservation Architect, and HTA Design as Landscape Architect.  

The current Bernoulli Centre hosts workshops and programs with scientists from all fundamental disciplines to meet and exchange ideas but is at capacity and needing to expand. 

This project will relocate the centre within the Bassenges estate, which comprises several 18th-century buildings and listed historical monuments, and embrace the Renaissance idea of ‘The Three Natures’ on the site: wilderness, agriculture, and the garden. These ideas will work together to maximise spaces for people, wildlife and food production, revealing the sedimentary layers that shaped the landscape through the years. 

The selected design returns the site to its historic layout and maintains some agricultural functions, whilst transforming the estate into a dynamic and fully accessible campus for students and researchers. The new interventions celebrate the individual and collective architectural features and qualities of the buildings. The new open spaces will include an agora for students and researchers to meet and exchange ideas, a lushly planted pleasure garden and a new market square. 

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, President of EPFL, said: “Fundamental sciences are of utmost importance for tomorrow’s research and innovation. They are the building stones upon which we stand to tackle most of today’s societal challenges. As designed here, the Bernoulli Centre will spread its wings in a magnificent environment and become the focal point of a whole community of scientists and students as well as a space that will host exchanges and discussion with schools and the population.  

Francis Maude, Director, 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”  

Natalia Roussou, Landscape Design Director, HTA Design, said: “Our vision for the Bernoulli Centre is to create an attractive and well-connected biophilic landscape for the use of both the international Academia and local community, enhancing biodiversity and promoting eco-agriculture. We are excited to have been selected by EPFL for this significant project, supporting a world class research hub in the field of Applied Sciences and look forward to working with EMA and DIA to bring this vision to life.”