Building a new territory

The project occupies the current site of honour of a sports complex that extends west to the A1 motorway and is bordered to the east by a dense suburban area.
The site will eventually be home to a vast park that will offer a high-quality landscaped setting with various school facilities: school, middle school and high school.
The general context of this operation is very qualitative and does not support strong constraints in terms of density or complex cohabitations.
Our project adopts a unitary and unifying urban and architectural strategy for the two schools.
Nothing allows us to justify a marked singularity of one school in relation to the other. They are part of the same territory. They share the same context and the circumstances of this consultation give them the same team of architects and the same construction company.
At the beginning, this original situation raised many questions for us.
In the end, we are now certain that it is a rare chance and opportunity to create a beautiful, peaceful and coherent urban piece, on the scale of the district and the city.
The second strategic choice concerns the territorial organisation of schools. It is first of all justified by contemporary societal reasons concerning security and protection, which have become our daily subject. Above all, there is the desire to preserve the school space from the turmoil of life and the bustle of the city. The school is a place of protection in the social, emotional and moral sense. Architecture must transcribe both its republican and secular openness to public space and to the city, but also its capacity to preserve a peaceful and preserved moment of learning.
Our team is specialized in school curricula and we have a lot of feedback. Today we see that sanctuary schools live better than open schools.
We propose buildings that envelop and protect their playgrounds.
This archetypal figure creates a structured and reassuring inner landscape. It is a U-shaped plan in which each school (kindergarten and elementary) occupies a separate wing on either side of the school restaurant that connects them.
This plan is declined on both sides of the forecourt opening in two distinct directions (north-east and south-west).
The composition of the schools echoes that of the Lycée Germaine Tillon, with which they are in continuity along rue Salengro.
In functional terms, this organisation offers a very clear and legible cartography of the different entities.

A sober and benevolent architecture

The architecture is sober, composed of simple volumes and natural materials chosen for their quality of appearance and durability.
The project includes basic rectangular volumes, covered with single-pitch roofs. The sobriety of this treatment aims to place the project in a long time frame, sheltered from often ephemeral formal effects.
The architectural writing of the project is regulated by its constructive framework, with a relative density, inherent to wood construction.
The intensity of this rhythm characterises the architecture, both on the façade and in the interior spaces. It also shows the search for a rationality of implementation and the enhancement of a future evolutivity.
On the façade, brick and wood write a duet score. On the public space, a mineral envelope made of bleached clay bricks, covers and protects the entire facades. On the courtyard side, pre-greased wooden slats offer a pleasant environment warm and more naturalist.