Bioclimatic School in Guécélard
By Atelier Julien Boidot
Client Commune de Guécélard
Award RIBA International Awards for Excellence 2024
Completed in 2020 the Rene Cassin School, by Atelier Julien Boidot, unifies and extends an existing kindergarten and primary school with a new 830m2 single story extension. Located in north-western France the building has sustainability at its heart.
A pallet of low carbon and often humble materials combine with ingenious solar chimneys that provide natural ventilation to the classrooms within the space and give the building one of its key identifying features.
Taking inspiration from the existing school and the utilitarian agricultural buildings of the local district, the designers have used corrugated cement board roofing, extruded tile bricks, timber trusses and CLT to create a generous single storey building.
Connecting a poorly arranged and unwelcoming collection of prior buildings on the site, the additions vastly improve the school complex’s relationship to the street by creating a generous public space. The project was realised at low cost and with a low carbon footprint.
Most of the buildings materials are left in their undecorated state, creating an interior pallet of clay, wood and cement board. The external facades combine grey corrugated cement board cladding softened by natural timber structure and provide rain shelter for waiting parents under a Murkuttesque corrugated roof overhang.
In an effort to reduce the running carbon costs of the building mechanical ventilation has been supplemented by solar chimneys.
These rectangular roof projections contain large south-facing windows and vents. When the sun heats up the chimney structure through the window the air is lifted out of the building by a thermal stack effect.
Location: Guécélard, France
Date of completion: 17/12/2020
Cost: £1,447,918.00
Gross internal area: 1560 m²
Environmental / M&E Engineer: Jean Souviron
Environmental / M&E Engineer: H3C
Structural Engineer: Vessière
Demolition, Asbestos Removal: MCM/MTD
Foundations, Paving, Structural Work: ESBTP
Timber Framing: Charpente Cénomane
Roofing, Bardage, ITE: Cruard Couverture
Exterior Aluminium Windows, Metalwork: Dabin
Exterior Wood Windows: Ébenisterie JL
Integrated Interior Wood Furnishings: Menuiserie Antoine
Floors: SRS
Painting, Plastering, False Ceiling: Vallée
Heating, Ventilation, Plumbing: Axiclim
Electricity: Anfray
Infrastructure, Green Spaces: Bauducel
