Richter architectes' proposal conceives the school as a small community, a tiny village made up of full and empty spaces, among a contained and lively landscape. One of the key elements of the project is the central courtyard, which becomes the tree-lined heart of the school. The interior spaces are arranged around the courtyard perpendicularly, like terraced houses that produce a play of orientations and openings.
The building, built with a wooden structure and a sawtooth roof, has only one floor and unfolds as a series of surprising volumes, avoiding the need for false ceilings and creating open spaces to the exterior that give users a rich spatial experience with alternating high and low views and changing exposures.
Elsa Triolet Nursery and Leisure Centre by Richter architectes et associés. Photograph by Luc Boegly.
Project description by Richter architectes
The Elsa Triolet school is moving into the newest section of Mitry-Mory, in a regular, orthogonal urban grid, a sprawling urban fabric of plots and modest pavilions, stretching from Tremblay in the west, to the great void of the plain in the east that separates Mitry-le-Neuf from Mitry-Bourg. The programme brings together a nursery school, a leisure centre and a school canteen for nursery and primary school classes.
The low-rise project rises three times, marking the three main entities: the nursery, the multi-activity room and the leisure centre. The school entrance is an opportunity to create a small public corner square, doubled by a protected and secure front courtyard, which is a transitional space between outside and inside.
The project is composed like a small village of full and empty spaces, with a full, contained and lively landscape. The building is protected from the views and noise of the city.
The roof descends around the courtyard which becomes the tree-lined heart of the project. At the centre we find the multi-activity room and the covered children's playground. While the roofs are always parallel to the main street, the classrooms are placed perpendicular to the courtyard, like terraced houses. This double play produces a great variety of spaces, orientations and openings.
Conceived as a horizontal thread suspended between spaces and circulations, the project avoids the need for false ceilings and deploys surprising volumes creating spaces open to the outside. Children can benefit from a unique, even luxurious spatial experience, perceiving it as an adventure with alternating high and low views and changing exposures.
