The Inner World

Jean Lurçat Middle School Saint-Denis, France

Jean Lurçat Middle School

Saint-Denis, France

The Inner World

Public

2016

Find out more

Status

Completed

Client

Conseil Général de la Seine Saint-Denis

Address

Rue d’Alembert, Saint-Denis, France

Date

2016

Area

10 000 m²

Program (Details)

Classrooms, Library, Auditorium, Lobby, Offices, Gymnasium, Dormitory, Dining Hall, Kitchens, Staff Housing

Credits

Photos: Jan Bitter

Project Team

Architect

Mikoü

Structure

Batiserf

Fluids

CET

HQE

Tribu

Economy

Bureau Michel Forgue

Others

Artist: Felice Varini
Acoustics: LASA
Landscape: Apres la pluie

The Jean Lurçat Middle School is situated in a contrasting landscape, at the intersection of a spacious suburban residential area and an open view of the Sports Park, which extends into the expansive La Courneuve Park. This urban location allows the school to act as a bridge between the city and nature.

Architecture in Harmony with Its Environment
Rather than a large, enclosed structure, the project unfolds as a series of pavilions set within a garden. This fragmentation maintains visual openness between the pavilions, allowing nature to flow through the spaces in between. The urban layout bridges the domestic scale of the surrounding houses with that of the public building, creating both a visual and structural landmark for the neighborhood. It also enables a clearer distinction of each educational building, offering a transparent and cohesive view of the school that blends seamlessly into the landscape. The pavilions are unified by expansive, landscaped outdoor spaces.

Pleated Roofs and Vibrant Materials

The pavilions’ north-south orientation ensures optimal sunlight, while their placement follows the natural contours of the terrain, harmonizing with the site’s geography. The school’s roof becomes a landscape in its own right. Its subtle pleats, inspired by cut angles, introduce a rhythmic interplay and variations, creating a dynamic light vibration that enlivens the façades and shifts with the passing hours. Each fold of the roof captures the light in its own way, fragmenting the sky into a thousand colorful reflections.

A Collection of Pavilions in the Park

The school interacts with the street through a presence that is both subtle and vibrant. Its façades play with light and perspective, thanks to anodized aluminum cladding that reflects in tones ranging from soft to radiant. The warm autumnal hues of this material echo the colors of the park’s foliage.
The varied textures and orientations of the cladding—horizontal, vertical, and undulating—intensify this vibrant effect, imbuing the school with a dynamic and evolving identity.

Inside, each pavilion is organized around a full-height central void, a light shaft crowned by a glass canopy. This space becomes the heart of each building, a gathering point and a place of openness, where students are connected across all levels.
The materials enhance the unique ambiance of the atrium: the walls, made from ochre-colored clay concrete, are deeply tinted, offering a tactile texture that harmonizes with the natural tones of the landscape. The brick-paved floor, extending into the planted outdoor patios, dissolves the boundary between interior and exterior, anchoring the school in a seamless continuity with the earth and nature.

Art as a Revealer of Space
The artist Felice Varini intervened in situ, incorporating an anamorphosis into the architecture that unveils the interplay of perspective and alignment. His graphic composition, visible from precise angles, cuts across and organizes the space, manipulating solids, voids, and reflections like an infinite mirror of reality.

On the top floor, beneath the pleated roof, the spaces open up, creating bright, airy volumes where the eye is drawn upwards towards the sky. The architecture becomes an invitation to contemplation, a place where light shapes the space and offers students a broader sense of perspective. Jean Lurçat School is a lived-in landscape, a threshold between the constructed and the natural. Both structured and fluid, mineral and organic, intimate and expansive, it represents a new vision of learning.