Swiss Tech Convention Center in Lausanne Now Open

The new Swiss Tech Convention Center in Lausanne opened this spring, a futuristic facility that promises to redefine meeting facilities for decades to come.

(Watch this video to see the remarkable system of collapsing chairs and moving walls in operation.)

The hallmarks of the new structure are its dramatic exterior, innovative use of solar power and its pioneering seating facilities that allow conference planners to quickly and efficiently transform the space for an entirely different purpose within minutes.

The Swiss Tech Convention Center’s convertible seating structure was developed by GALA Systems of Quebec. Using the fully automated GALA system, the floor of the auditorium opens up and mechanical arms lift rows of chairs and store them under the floor, leaving a flat surface in their wake. The process of transforming the 3,000-seat tiered auditorium to a flat ballroom floor space takes approximately 15 minutes. During a short coffee break, the entire space can be changed into a reception venue or a banquet hall.

Located on the campus of Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), one of the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, the Swiss Tech Convention Center is also the first large-scale convention hall to use dye-sensitized solar cells, called Grätzel cells, which were in part developed at EPFL. Grätzel cells use dye to convert electricity, not unlike the process of chlorophyll photosynthesis in plants. They are less expensive to produce and more flexible than silicon panels.

The Swiss Tech Convention center is 40 minutes east of the city of Geneva. From the center of Lausanne, it is 15 minutes by public transportation.

www.tstcc.ch