After five years of work and 250 million francs invested, the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) inaugurated its new campus on Friday on the heights of the city. Rising from 25,000 to 80,000 m2, it will be able to accommodate more than 3,000 students, compared to 2,400 currently.
The ceremony took place in the afternoon at the Chalet-à-Gobet in the presence of the President of the Confederation Ignazio Cassis, the Vaudois State Councilor Frédéric Borloz and the syndic of the City of Lausanne Grégoire Junod. “Many are surprised to learn that the new infrastructure on campus focuses above all on living spaces and not on classrooms strictly speaking. However, at EHL, our pedagogical approach resonates both in the classroom and outside,” said Michel Rochat, CEO of EHL Group.
“Our students will be able to further enrich their university experience, develop personally and humanly, thanks in particular to the thirty or so student committees that will bring the places and soul of EHL to life,” he said. Founded in 1893, EHL is the oldest hotel school in the world. It is now renamed EHL-Hospitality Business School.
Nearly 1000 beds available
The capacity of the campus increases from approximately 500 to almost 1000 beds to accommodate students directly on the site. Twelve catering outlets open to the public, including a new high-end brasserie and a vegan restaurant, are now also offered.
It also offers sports facilities such as a 25-meter swimming pool, a wellness area with sauna and cold bath, a multi-sports hall, pétanque courts, tennis courts, beach volleyball courts and 2 km of running track all around. of the site.
“The new campus encourages a sustainable way of life and offers a real natural ecosystem with an organic orchard, the presence of around 300 trees and 5,500 shrubs of local species, the creation of a 2,500 m2 educational garden that allows students to understand the notion of seasonality and to understand the importance of short circuits”, explain its managers.
It also hosts more than 250,000 bees housed in six hives and has more than 400 vines, they add.
Geothermal probes and solar panels
The campus is equipped with 44 geothermal probes and an innovative wastewater heat recovery system to cover 80% of the university’s heating needs. The campus is also equipped with solar panels covering an area equivalent to three Olympic swimming pools.
In 2013, the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne organized a new kind of architectural competition for this major expansion, calling on students from nine schools of architecture and landscaping to imagine its campus of the future. Some 385 students from all over the world worked on this project.
Of the 100 proposals received, 20 students with their professors were then invited to Switzerland to meet EHL students in order to learn about their expectations and ambitions. Then they presented their work to a committee of experts, who selected the three best. The winners were invited to develop a master plan with the support of the architect’s office responsible for the project.
This article has been published automatically. Source: ats