Bobigny School Complex, Bobigny, 2009

The city centre school in Bobigny is in a strategic urban location, bounded by three large streets and by a pedestrian space on the north. We designed this amenity - which is emblematic of the city centre's renewal - to be a strong architectural landmark in its neighbourhood that is both welcoming and protective, turned inwards towards inner courtyards to ensure the children's privacy. The building's location lent itself to a three-storey mass on the north and east which gradually descends in tiers towards the south to allow maximum sunshine into the school playgrounds. This configuration allows us to propose a very identifiable building that is both unified and protective, which fits closely into its urban setting and follows the layout of the three streets that enclose it, with variation of the massing that creates a play of transparency and of visual counterpoints on the south and the south-west. Viewed from above, the building is seen as a succession of planted terraces which open up and wrap themselves around the void of the playgrounds.  For this new facility, we chose a visibly durable material, composed of natural timber panels of different colours which alternate with timber-framed glazed panels on a horizontal grid.