Bernard Tschumi Architects has completed Philo, a ring-shaped science centre at the Institute Le Rosey boarding school near Geneva. The five-storey structure features a skylit central atrium that serves as the project's organizing element, connected by staircases and helical slides that thread through the building's interior.
The design prioritizes circulation as experience. Rather than treating movement between floors as utilitarian, Tschumi's team embedded playful sculptural slides into the atrium's vertical landscape. Classrooms, laboratories, and social spaces wrap around this dramatic core, making the building's mechanical systems visible and engaging for students.
Tschumi, the renowned theorist and architect known for deconstructivist principles, has built a structure that treats pedagogy as inseparable from architecture itself. The ring configuration maximizes visual connectivity, allowing students to observe activity across multiple levels simultaneously. Natural light floods the central atrium, reducing the need for artificial illumination in what could otherwise feel claustrophobic.
The Institute Le Rosey, Switzerland's most prestigious boarding school, required a science facility that matched its reputation for innovation and tradition. Philo delivers both. The building's formal geometry echoes classical architectural language, while the experiential slide-filled atrium signals forward-thinking pedagogy and play-based learning.
This project reflects broader shifts in educational architecture away from cellular classroom designs toward spatial configurations that encourage serendipitous encounters and integrated learning. By making staircases and circulation primary rather than secondary design elements, Tschumi transforms how students move through educational space. The helical slides particularly signal that learning institutions can embrace joy alongside rigor.
THE TAKEAWAY: Tschumi demonstrates that functional school buildings can become spatial narratives that shape how students experience knowledge itself.