Walking on the roof
The architects at rue royale sought first and foremost to integrate the project as much as possible into its context. In this case, it was not just an issue of addressing the specifics of a plot of land, its neighbouring sites or its topography, but about opening it up to the broader environment and sending a strong message about the place and the role of the school in the city. It is no longer a monument or a representation of power, as were schools in the time of Ferry, for example. Instead, it is a significant and structuralelement of community life, one that is welcoming and open. The «open» school is an educational tool that trains children to become future citizens. In this case, it was all about the path, about surveying the land, about the walkway that brings the two schools together: the primary school, a classic building from the early 20th century set inside a beautiful walled garden, and the new facility. The route between them skirts the rue de la Croze, crosses a public park, slopes gently over the roof of the school and then reaches the main entrance via a long flight of stairs. It’s fun and cheerful, allowing children to experience the facility from different angles, with the idea of creating an open pathway that is accessible from the top or bottom of the site.The school is set into the slope, hewing as close as possible to the topography of the land. A ground floor consisting of two half-levels rises from the lower, horizontal part of the site.
The upper floor is perpendicular to it, absorbing the difference in level and minimising the levelling earthworks required. The school is immersed in nature, which in this context is generous and eclectic. It offers a formidable teaching tool. It blends into the landscape thanks to several additional features like the meadow-like green terraces, the vegetable garden, the patio planted with trees, and the open connection to the courtyard, which itself tells a story. From both outside and inside the school, views of the wider landscape and the hills are everywhere.
The facility is clearly divided into parts. It is a nursery school with six classrooms, but it also includes an after-school care centre and a large-scale catering centre (the municipality’s central kitchen). The entrance, located in the centre of the building, separates the catering area to the south from the after-school care area to the north. Each has its own independent access. A large double-storey reception hall on the ground floor connects to three classrooms and their respective sleeping areas, which open onto the lower courtyard. A clockwise staircase leads up to three additional classrooms and the upper courtyard. Classrooms face the courtyard to preserve the children’s privacy. At the western end, above the main entrance, the library and documentation centre have a generously proportioned wooden terrace protected from the sun and open to the outdoor landscape.
The courtyard provides an intermediary space between the classrooms and the courtyard. Its generous dimensions make full use of raw materials including sandblasted concrete and a sound-absorbing wooden slatted ceiling. Directly linked to the sanitary facilities and a storage area for playground equipment, it functions efficiently while remaining free of clutter. Slender, smooth concrete posts mark an imaginary boundary between inside and outside.
The atmosphere throughout is extremely gentle and peaceful, characterized by the use of untreated materials, concrete and wood, and a great deal of natural light. Solar exposure is controlled by interior shading devices and blinds, and there is a particular focus on comfortable acoustics. The ceiling has been kept high, leaving the technical ducts visible. This contributes significantly to the impression of space.
The colours are mainly those of the materials or remain neutral, such as the white walls and gray-coloured metalwork. Only the terracotta-coloured floors and the grand staircase contribute warm tones. Choosing this deliberate neutrality leaves roomforthecoloursandlifeof all the children’s «stuff». A special signage system designed by the agency Supernova creates subtle parallels between wildlife pictograms and the school’s architecture. The work was conceived on two scales: one for children, and one for adults.
From a technical standpoint, the project uses two main materials: concrete and wood. The team as a whole was committed to using regional with raw concrete and local wood certified BTMC (“Wood from the Massif Central”). The BTMC approach aims to promote local varieties of wood and the companies that produce them, guaranteeing their origins, traceability and the sustainable management of forests, as well as the quality of processing and use. The entire chain of production, processing and construction is involved in this process. With this project, the contractor acted as an ambassador for the BTMC label. Maliges and Genevrier agreed to respect the label as a condition for being awarded the contract.
The ground floor is made of sandblasted concrete from local aggregates. The wooden upper storey features a timber-frame structure and walls, mixed wood and metal posts, glued-laminated timber beams, CLT (cross- laminated timber) slabs and Douglas fir cladding. The cladding is made up of flat slats of different widths and perpendicular slats that give it a sense of rhythm and vibration. Throughout the rest of the project, wood is openly visible in the woodwork, shutters and ceiling soffits, as well as in the curtain walls at certain strategic points like the patio, dining hall and the library.
The external spaces are a key part of the project. They include the access path from rue de la Croze, the rooftop walkway, the slope and clearings, the two upper and lower courtyards and the reception area at the entrance. These are rich, subtle, multi-faceted spaces that provideanopportunityfornature education and group playtime. Recreational areas, planted roofs, pathways, comfortable staircases, sloped embankments, a rooftop vegetable garden, shaded and sunny areas, a shelter under the covered playground, a patio, local gardens: all are places where children can experiment and play. The materials also contribute to this diverse range of environments, helping awaken the children’s senses. Functioning like a guiding line, large slabs of sandblasted concrete are visible through the project, a contemporary twist on Japanese steps that use local volcanic stone.
CREDITS
Lead architect: rue royale architectes
Landscape architect: Atelier du Bocal
Engineering consultants: TPFI BET TCE
