(Consortium Agence Spatiale + BGLA + APPAREIL)

A shelter, an enveloping warmth, a welcoming nest that stimulates learning within a set of houses sized for children. A school whose residential architectural language radiates.
The project was born out of a desire to fragment the conventional school's template. The resulting volumes then approach a domestic, inclusive and familiar scale of architecture. The building is made up of a multitude of small houses that are organized like a microcosm around a central courtyard, acting as the main true heart of the project. The layout is articulated in three wings, each with its own program. On the first floor, the wing on the street houses the staff rooms that animate the façade, while on the garden level, the preschool classes are set up in direct connection with the courtyard. Adjacent to the outdoor sports fields, the side wing houses the gymnasium, facilitating its use by the community, as well as the bleachers, serving as the school gathering place and entertaining its daily school activities. The third wing houses the learning communities arranged in a row, allowing intuitive progression from one cycle to the next. These are vertically connected by a living circulation space, articulated by staircases that incorporate unique reading areas. On the courtyard side, quality spaces are forming transitional zones between the liveliness of the courtyard and the calm necessary to the attention required inside of the classrooms.
Delicately rooted in its site, the school's silhouette is in continuity with the surrounding residential landscape and offers a strong interrelationship with its environment, thus embodying a genuine reflection of Saguenay's northern nature. On a territorial scale, the design is sensitive to vernacular practice, notably by promoting the innovative use of local materials, raw or recycled, thus enhancing the regional economy.
In fact, the school is intended to be a caring place, encouraging candor and discovery, where children will be able to blossom. A house to develop its ingenuity, to be authentic, to take care of oneself and others.
ARCHITIZER 2022
Texte (299 /300mots)
The project was born out of a desire to fragment the conventional school's template and resulted in a warm and welcoming nest that stimulates learning within a set of houses sized for children.
The building is made up of a multitude of small houses that are organized like a microcosm around a central courtyard, acting as the main true heart of the project. The layout is articulated in three wings, each with its own program. On the first floor, the wing on the street houses the staff rooms that animate the façade, while on the garden level, the preschool classes are set up in direct connection with the courtyard. Adjacent to the outdoor sports fields, the side wing houses the gymnasium, facilitating its use by the community, as well as the bleachers, serving as the school gathering place and entertaining its daily school activities. The third wing houses the learning communities arranged in a row, allowing intuitive progression from one cycle to the next. These are vertically connected by a living circulation space, articulated by staircases that incorporate unique reading areas. On the courtyard side, quality spaces are forming transitional zones between the liveliness of the courtyard and the calm necessary to the attention required inside of the classrooms.
Delicately rooted in its site, the school's silhouette is in continuity with the surrounding residential landscape and offers a strong interrelationship with its environment, thus embodying a genuine reflection of Saguenay's northern nature. On a territorial scale, the design is sensitive to vernacular practice, notably by promoting the innovative use of local materials, raw or recycled, thus enhancing the regional economy.
The school is intended to be a caring place, encouraging candor and discovery. A house to develop its ingenuity, to be authentic, to take care of oneself and others.