Located in the suburbs of Paris, this building is a public school for 10 to 15 years old children. We wanted to answer two problematics of the site. Turned outward, the school integrates in the existing urban tissue, making the outside facade a filter for urban annoyances and security. On the inside, the court reserved for the children is more friendly and quiet.

Given the context of a school, a major issue on this project are the classrooms and hallways. Every specialized room has a different conception, the art room has the roof of an artist's studio, the music room is acoustically separated. The hallways all have daylight.
The ventilation system is based on earth cooling tubes running through the former underground mines. There is a constant air renewing through dropped ceilings and raised floors. The windows are designed, that even direct sunlight is not dazzling. The metallic structure even allows radical changes to the existing building, if they are needed in the future.

The roofs are not continuous and respond to the complexity of the town center. Rather than building a visible block identified as school, we propose a more complex urban environment that has an educational function. So the school has several distinct parts, giving the child the possibility understanding the relations of the inside and the outside.

To underline this difference, the main entrance is not only a filter for security, but also a light filter, changing the ambiance at every moment of the day.

Team Project with Grégoire Fourmaintraux