After the public facility in Neuvecelle (74), winner of the Équerre d'Argent award in 2021 (with PNG), this new renovation-extension by Julien Boidot and his associates places the school back at the center of the village. In an era of heatwaves, this project tests the potential of renovation as a way to guard against heat: the extension unfolds a circulation gallery in masonry and wood, folded to define the space of the south-facing courtyard. Across three levels, a gallery connects the school cafeteria and classrooms opening onto the valley to the existing school building, while its roof overhangs and blinds cast shade and keep the children cool. The project follows the constructive typology of the Vallon-du-Sausseron, extending the forms, scale, and built grain of the town, while opening the school onto a large lower courtyard linked to the village square by a new public stairway. The cafeteria and courtyard can open onto the landscape during public events. This project, which makes the user an active participant in their own comfort, also confirms the trajectory of a practice that treats architecture as a powerful tool for consensus among collaborators, users, project owners, engineers, and craftspeople.
Julien Boidot is also a senior lecturer in TPCAU (Techniques and Practices for Architectural and Urban Design) within the Transformation master's program at ENSA Paris-Est.
"The goal is to define a distinct architecture of transformation, one that simultaneously questions the fundamentals of the discipline such as the relationship to the ground, economy of means, use, structural opportunity, thickness, distribution, the relationship between interior and exterior, meaning, and even aesthetics." JBA
© Clément Guillaume
© Clément Guillaume
© Clément Guillaume
© Clément Guillaume
