Almost a year ago, Archi.ru published the Chartier Dalix eco-school in the metropolitan suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, and now another “green” school by the same architects has appeared in another suburb of Paris - Ivry-sur-Seine.
It is located within the boundaries of the ZAC - "zone of coordinated planning" - Ivry Confluence, one of the largest urban development projects in the Parisian metropolitan area. It aims to integrate Ivry-sur-Seine into urban “networks” and improve the quality of urbanization there. The Rosalind Franklin Learning Complex, consisting of a biodiversity school and a dormitory for students and researchers, is one of the first to emerge as part of this ambitious plan.
The building site is located on the border of two scales: on the one hand - an open landscape
treatment facilities designed by Dominique Perrault, and on the other - a residential area under construction, for which the school and the hostel will become the center of attraction.
The building consists of three "peninsulas" that form two courtyards with playgrounds facing south. Windows of all the main classrooms also look out here to ensure there is a sufficient level of natural light. The interior space is designed as flexibly as possible: light spacious corridors, multi-functional halls, many open spaces for games and meetings are functionally and visually interconnected.
The picturesque landscape of the school is formed by three overlapping green terraces. At the first level, a “teacher garden” has been set up to help teachers teach biodiversity topics where vegetables and herbs can be grown. An alternative space for exploring nature in bad weather will be the large reading room on the mezzanine floor above the library, from where all the terraces are visible.
Thin metal railing runs along the entire perimeter of the terraces and partially along the facades. They protect the facades from the heat of the sun, and on the terraces they serve as a support for climbing plants. Also, fencing allows you to separate the school space from the nearby shopping center and residential buildings.
The only vertical of the complex is a 9-storey student dormitory. It is located north of the school, which gives it a certain independence. In addition, this location is dictated by the desire of the architects to give as much sun as possible to the educational complex, so the building of the hostel was placed so that it would not hang over the school and its courtyards.
The basic principles of dormitory planning are rationality and compactness. On the ground floor there are shops, the rest of the floors are occupied by 131 studio apartments. Each - with an area of 19 m2, is designed for one tenant and contains everything you need: a room of 10 m2, an entrance hall and a bathroom. The building is much higher than the surrounding buildings, so all its rooms are well lit and offer a beautiful view of the Seine and the city.
The facade of the hostel is made of lightweight metal perforated panels. They protect the interiors from views from the street and from excessive sunlight. Some of them are permanently installed, the rest are sliding ones.
The competent approach of the architects made it possible to integrate the educational complex into the urban environment as much as possible: the permeability of the first floors emphasizes the feeling of the openness of the center to the residents of the adjacent quarters. The total area of the complex is 8,650 m2, the budget is 19.7 million euros.
