Renovation of the La Fontaine Primary School

A finely-chiselled jewel embellished by its wooded setting, the renovated primary school is a distinctive and remarkable building, delivering a new image for the schools complex as a whole.

The existing building is situated on a woodland fringe, lodged in a highly distinctive topography: at a very early stage, it appeared to us to be embedded in a setting of greenery. We have therefore worked upon this idea of an object in its setting to develop a façade which is as abstract as possible in style.

Our intention has been to dispense with traditional architectural elements in pursuit of an unprecedented signature style which is as distinctive as possible. Accordingly, the triangular mesh structure which we propose blurs, or even erases the distinction of levels and windows, and contributes to the abstraction which we had in mind. This arrangement has also allowed us to relax the highly strict interpretation of the existing grid structure, which is typical of school buildings constructed in the late 1960s.

The new façades are of aluminium construction. The architectural style involves the pursuit of work on the aesthetic qualities of this material, exploiting its behaviour in light. Accordingly, the layout of façade elements features an alternation of brushed aluminium, lacquered aluminium and glazed elements. The result is a carefully finished and exquisite structure, which both exploits and interacts with its environment to generate varying qualities of reflection. Changing with the light of day and from season to season, the refurbished building is in a constant state of flux, sometimes brilliant, sometimes darker and sometimes discreet, embellished by reflections of the adjoining greenery, and sometimes imposing its stamp on the surroundings.

Moreover, work undertaken on triangular panels of different sizes, and the random distribution of different surface effects over the façade, have permitted the achievement of a dynamic structure, the perception of which changes according to the position of the observer.