Lake View

Lugrin, a small village in the Pays d’Évian, unfolds like a cascade across a succession of terraces dominated by the first foothills of the Alps. Facing Lausanne, the city offers one of the most stunning panoramas of Lake Geneva. Nestled in the historic heart of the village, behind the church and town hall, the existing school complex — composed of a girls’ school dating from 1850 and a 1950s town hall–school building for boys — has just received a new addition. This latest extension increases the school’s capacity with a new cafeteria, playground, four classrooms, and new circulation spaces. Intertwined with the site’s sloping topography, the existing ensemble is a patchwork of interlocking volumes, stepped carefully along the terrain. The new building establishes a close dialogue with its older neighbors while asserting its own clear, autonomous presence. Emerging from the landscape as a rectilinear corten steel volume anchored to a raw concrete base, it stands out against the horizon while blending harmoniously with the nearby tiled roofs. The archetype of the barn, deeply rooted in local heritage, inspired its form: the dual-pitched roof and rust-colored patina evoke a timeless connection between land and knowledge. Its long, slender silhouette stretches along the slope, framing views toward the lake. The project’s strength lies in its contrasts — lightness and solidity, brightness and shadow, transparency and opacity, void and mass — a subtle balance that both grounds the building and lets it breathe within its exceptional landscape.

Press kit upon request