Competition

"ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS" SCHOOL

The project takes advantage of the program imposed to give maximum living space to the village, two schools and a library that can work together or separately. It takes into account the potential of the existing school, its multiple accesses, multiple courtyards and its geometric orientations.

Organized on two levels, the building clearly separates the requested plans. The lower floor includes the classes of the nursery school that allow access to walk-in pedestrians and strollers thus minimizing the use of stairs. On the upper floor is the primary school, which has several entries. Also on the upper floor are the extracurricular spaces and the refectory. These, arranged in the existing wing, can allow the need, an independent operation. On the lower ground floor the library attached with the "support" classes  enjoys direct access from the communal street thus allowing a differentiated use. This programmatic separation facilitates the phasing of the works, allowing for the first time the complete use of existing buildings. The new wing built allows an alternating transfer of classes releasing separately the two levels of existing wings to be transformed.

Located at the intersection of two streets in the heart of the village, the new complex is the bridgehead of the future development of the plateau "Black Eagle". The geometry of the new construction responds to the immediate context: the adjacent school buildings and the nearby village church. As a small body, the added body uses a very limited area of implantation. While remaining in orthogonal geometries in the organization of the interior spaces, the building folds to open the courtyard on the pedestrian service and at the same time opens the perspective on the church. This perspective is accentuated by the orientation of the ridge - typical of the region, parallel to contour lines. Set back from the rue des Monts, the new wing of the school creates a place through which one reaches the upper floor of the school as well as the library which can be opened to the public.

In order to strengthen the identity of the heart of the village, the materiality of the new building clearly shows its public vocation, a mineral envelope. The constructive solution adopted is that of a double concrete wall. The wood is used for framing and is made visible in interior and exterior joinery, acoustical ceiling panels and furniture.

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