Centre scolaire Champsec
Challenge. The landscape character of the site contrasts favourably with the heterogeneous built fabric that surrounds it. The Champsec school complex thus offers a quality urban breathing space that must be preserved. The area under consideration is currently split along its north-south axis by the Chemin des Pâquerettes. The intervention aims to end this east-west divide through a requalification of the park across all the parcels made available.
Setting. The project opts for a distribution of the complementary programme in two buildings of pavilion character, connected around a large recreation space with the existing school. The current playground is reinforced by its natural centrality in the enlarged complex. The sports hall marks the north-west front of parcel 2053, bounded by the Route de Chippis. The extension of the school is achieved through a new wing placed perpendicular to the existing school in the quieter south-east zone of the site. The volume intended for the day-care centre composes with the latter by means of a large covered passage that generates an entrance zone common to both functions and opens onto the schoolyard.
Accessibility. The scheme reconsiders the permeability of the pedestrian accesses for the children from all sides of the site. The network of paths allows both reaching the heart of the school facility and bypassing it via a public soft-mobility axis located to the west of the complex. In general, the accesses to the various components of the programme are articulated around the schoolyard at the heart of the park, allowing easy orientation for users.
Programme. The volume intended for the extension of the school is organised over two levels and set slightly back from the existing building. A functional link is ensured by a glazed connection forming a negative joint between the two building bodies. This proximity allows the school to function as a single entity while reinforcing the existing facilities. The classrooms are strategically distributed by grade: three rooms for grades 1 and 2 on the garden level and seven rooms for grades 3 to 8 on the upper floor. Access to these is ensured by a generous circulation element enjoying an attractive visual relationship with the schoolyard. The day-care programme benefits from a covered link with the school and has a level relationship with its secured outdoor courtyard. The volume of the double sports hall completes the composition and is organised with a main entrance canopy from the schoolyard, also well served from the Route de Chippis for club members. The generous entrance hall offers a fine view into the hall and gives access to the stands. A staircase leads the hall's users down to the lower floor where the changing rooms are located.
Architectural expression. Sensitive to the heritage value of the existing school, the project opts for a neutral exterior materiality in concrete with metal infills. It thus dialogues with the existing building, which also combines concrete and metal. The intervention is nevertheless made visible with its own architectural language. On the ground floor, the façades refer to the permeable plan of the latter and are animated by large openings that convey an impression of transparency between inside and outside. On the upper floor, the choice of a vertical façade articulation on the two new buildings gives the whole a strong identity. Likewise, the choice of a low volumetry reinforces the quality of the existing building by integrating it into a new built ensemble.
Structural concept. The load-bearing structure of the new buildings consists mainly of reinforced-concrete walls and slabs. Horizontal stabilisation is ensured by reinforced-concrete seismic shear walls. The project's design easily makes it possible to find enough aligned walls to brace both the slabs and the roofs.
Energy concept. Sustainability is an integral part of the project: the compactness of the volumes is optimised, allowing a saving of land and energy consumption. This efficiency of the volume, the thermal quality of the building envelope, the inertia of the materials used, the recourse to a high-performance heat-production system and a controlled air renewal are all elements that will minimise thermal losses and the building's energy needs. In summer, a textile-blind solar protection and a natural ventilation of the rooms with low-g glazing will limit solar radiation and the overheating of the building. The green flat roofs of the new volumes offer the possibility of integrating large areas of solar installations, thus favouring the use of renewable energy.