Historical past of Structure at EHL: la “Ferme”

So why did the Metropolis of Lausanne determine to construct a farm at this explicit location? The reply is printed in Anne Radeff’s guide entitled Lausanne et ses campagnes au 17e siècle, which sheds mild on the financial system in Lausanne and outlying areas within the seventeenth century⁴. Her analysis supplies an in depth clarification of the city’s enterprise mannequin, which used huge territories abutting town as a income by means of tenant farming.

The farm, constructed on land belonging to town within the early 18th century, is subsequently part of this financial system and households of farmers would proceed to function it era after era. The EHL farm is a undoubtedly an necessary instance of the development of a farm/residence mandated by the Metropolis of Lausanne within the 18th century.

Swiss Resort Affiliation takes the choice to depart the Avenue de Cour

On the finish of the Nineteen Sixties, EHL was prospering and noticed enrolment climb to about 600 college students, half of whom had been off doing an internship overseas. Quite a few additions to the campus on Avenue de Cour had been made, akin to an formidable outbuilding in 1970. Nonetheless, the college was cramped on the town and eyed a really daring growth. Discussions about overhauling the curriculum, together with transferring from a 3- to a 4-semester program, underscored the dearth of area. Such a modification would change EHL’s educational supply and would require additional lecture rooms, to not point out the numerous extra college students who can be on the campus at any given time.

On June 16, 1971, the Société Suisse des Hôteliers, because the governing physique of the École hôtelière was recognized on the time, determined to drag up stakes and go away the Avenue de Cour campus. This is the reason administration, led by Eric Gerber, director from 1968 to 1973, began to prospect for brand spanking new lands to accommodate the école hôtelière of tomorrow. And so they used all manners of communication to discover a new dwelling, together with advertisements within the native paper!

The varsity obtained a bunch of fascinating presents together with from the close by city of Puidoux-Chexbres. After in depth negotiations, the Metropolis of Lausanne gained the bid in 1972 and the Société Suisse des Hôteliers determined to arrange the college in Chalet-à-Gobet, on the excessive northern tip of Lausanne.

The Nouvelle École, because it was known as, was constructed on a leafy lot that stretched alongside the Route de Berne on the fringe of a forest. The acquisition of the land got here with all constructions and outbuildings positioned on that land, which meant the La Ferme was in non-public arms for the primary time in its lengthy historical past.

Nonetheless, the farm stood tall because the land was remodeled and new buildings sprouted up.

Removed from being forged apart, the farm grew to become the precise and symbolic middle of the Nouvelle École. After some renovation work, it grew to become a hub of leisure and rest for college kids, a narrative that was picked up by media retailers on the time.

In 1974, there was a significant shock: the Nouvelle École’s development fee filed to demolish the farm as a result of pricey renovations had been wanted, the constructing was unfit for its new use and the farm’s model was deemed antiquated given the fashionable campus. In January 1975, the fee even employed an organization to do the demolition work.

However La Ferme wasn’t about to go down with no struggle and, in Might 1975, the fee’s demolition allow was rejected by the native authorities. The farm was to be saved as specified within the constructing allow that had initially been approved.

New EHL campus, new farm

Building on the brand new campus started in 2017, which required the farm to be dismantled solely to be put again collectively once more in the course of the brand new campus. The brand new-and-improved farm was unveiled on July 2022 within the presence of Swiss president Ignazio Cassis. Spacious and fashionable, it at the moment homes a café—however not simply any café, a Montreux Jazz Café, from the well-known music pageant created in 1967 on the shores of Lake Geneva by Claude Nobs, an EHL alumnus!

The brand new farm is equivalent to the previous constructing however with new supplies. Charming historic particulars, such because the inexperienced sandstone window casings and doorways, had been preserved (as required by the Lausanne authorities in control of heritage websites).

With its historical past made up of ups and downs, La Ferme is the epitome of the expression “turning our weaknesses right into a power”. Maybe cumbersome for the development fee of the Nouvelle École within the Nineteen Seventies, it has right this moment change into a necessary landmark and the image of the Lausanne campus.

<sup>1. GLAUSER, Daniel, ROLAND, Isabelle, Recensement architectural du Canton de Vaud, Route générale des immeubles et du patrimoine, Monuments et websites, 1993, fiche n°Cojo 18

2. ROLAND, Isabelle, Lausanne ancienne ferme de Cojonnex propriété de l’École hôtelière de Lausanne. Étude historique et architecturale, Lausanne : EHL, 2015

3. Ibidem, p. 1 – 3

4. RADEFF, Anne, Lausanne et ses campagnes au 17e siècle, Lausanne : Presses Centrales Lausanne, 1980</sup>

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