The new building, next to Anthropole, will serve as a gateway to the UNIL campus in Dorigny. The building houses the faculties of Law, Criminal Sciences, Public Administration, and Higher Business Studies along with a 200-seat tiered auditorium, a refectory, classrooms, and student workstations.

Concerned with the surroundings, the project became an opportunity to re-evaluate the proposed building’s connection with them. The design was formulated with two different architectural challenges: idea of building a huge edifice on a park-like site without destroying it and creating a strong collective identity for the constellation of facilities. Breaking the building into a cascade of green terraces came up as a solution with the least impact.

The idea is to make the building adaptable to future needs. The project’s purpose is to embrace industrial flexibility while organising it economically. Four rectangular stacked office bars were constructed around two vertical cores to offer natural light and access to elevators, staircases, and technical systems. The green terraces become office extensions and the steps of the building allow the view of the vegetable mound and beyond.

The expressive and pragmatic lightweight composite structure provides a continuous and adaptable spatial condition to adjust to future growth. Double-height rooms bring light spatial characteristics of the rooms.

The north parking lot is extended and becomes a combined entry court for both the buildings. The ground-floor public spaces like the lobby, refectory, and display allow chance interactions. By combining the shared programmes on the ground level, the floor can accommodate significant public events. A new public foyer has been created to the south of the structure, connecting all the campus buildings.

The tiered auditorium and supporting infrastructure, such as deposits, are hidden underground. Surrounding the volume boundary on each upper level is an office enfilade that allows the pairing of offices. Natural light floods the offices, making them feel more spacious. Each office opens into enormous outdoor terraces that served as sky gardens, connecting the tower to its surroundings.

The building floats in the landscape, an abstract, archaic form that is both foreign and familiar.