WATA - World Architecture Technal Awards Edition 2019 | Page 16

MERIT TEACHING AND CULTURE
High School, La Plaine Saint-Denis,
France
Architect Agency
Brenac & Gonzalez & Associés
Owner
Région Île-de-France - Unité Lycées
Technal Metal Builder
France 2000
20
This new school combines an international high school and its
boarding school, located in the heart of the ZAC Montjoie, south
of the rapidly changing city of Saint-Denis. By its size and its
large-scale programme of 15,500 square meters, it represents
a dual challenge, urban and architectural, for this eco-district.
The Brenac & Gonzalez & Associés agency wanted to imagine
a project that would be open to the city and would contribute
to the daily life of the inhabitants.
The buildings rise up to reveal perspectives and visual
connections between the public space, the square, the courtyard,
the courtyard, the courtyard or the interior gardens. This
transparency is reflected in the facade thanks to GEODE curtain
walls that have been installed on the double-height, space of the
reception hall and the galleries on the ground floor. Suspended,
cantilevered, the latter building completes the geometric figure
on Filletes street.
A technical work has been carried out by France 2000 metal
builder on these GEODE curtain walls. The company and the
architect worked closely together to integrate, on the outside,
wooden pilasters that cover the aluminium uprights of TECHNAL
solutions.
On the inside, the slender columns act as stiffeners. To the
south, the vertical wooden slats, cut into curves, provide
protective shade for vocational education rooms. The kinetic
effect amplifies the perception of movement and undulation.
The façades are treated as an interlacing of moving ribbons.
Passing gradually from the outside to the inside, these plans
are enhanced by a change of materials according to their
applications and positions. On the city side, white textured
concrete panels cover the walls, on the inside the grey wooden
borders the playground. The play between aluminium and wood
is reinforced by the TECHNAL colour choice for the joinery. A
bronze tonality blended into the wooden envelope and contrasts
with white concrete.