French architecture firm r2k architecte has built a wooden school inspired by Nordic architecture in Noisy-le-Grand, France. 

The school, named Oiseau Lyre, aims to be biosourced positive energy building with its bold material approach.

Designed with susutainable principles in mind, the building was built using wood and 87% of the school building materials were obtained from the construction site waste. 

The school, offering rainwater infiltration, has 11 geothermal wells with 2,038 square meters of vegetated roof. 

Image © Erieta Attali

Anchored on a plot with 8 meters of elevation, the school faces North towards the Marne and explores a new pedagogical model of Finnish inspiration, offering a diversity of shared spaces. 

The compact building of 50mx100m is set on 4 levels, maintaining a low height profile in relation to neighboring pavilions. Like a Palladian villa, functions are embedded in the core of the building, in an area filled with natural light and the social vibrancy of the school.

Image © Erieta Attali

With Oiseau Lyre, r2k architecte brings the environmental and educational ambitions of the City of Noisy le Grand to realization through the construction and interior design of a positive energy building made of wood. Based on recent cognitive research, it provides a framework for active pedagogies.

Image © Erieta Attali

In its spatial proposals, the school's design incorporates the latest know-how of Nordic schools, and those of the Quebec Lab-school, models which r2k architects Véronique Klimine (France) and Olavi Koponen (Finland) visited.

Delivered in September 2022 to welcome its first students, the school will ramp up operations in 2023/ 2024 with the arrival of new inhabitants of the neighboring eco-district.

Image © Erieta Attali

The program includes 24 classrooms for kindergarten and elementary students, as well as 8 rooms intended as recreation spaces. Common spaces, including a multipurpose room with direct external access, a motor room, an art galleries, a library, a restaurant, and a sports hall are shared with civic associations when school is out.

On a steep slope facing the Marne River, three levels of the 4-level school are connected to the natural terrain, facilitating the safety of children. Located in the middle of a vernacular district, the project also respects the proportions of surrounding houses.

Image © Erieta Attali

Biophilia and well-being

The project welcomes natural light into the heart of school spaces, despite its diminutive size of just 50mx100m. It is sculpted with light thanks to sheds, skylights, interior glazing, and more that highlight wood materials in the heart of the building through the atrium and the steps. 

Light and materiality are essential parts of well-being and, from the interior spaces, the view of the private gardens greatly contribute to a peaceful atmosphere. Acoustics defined by wooden ceilings, as well as indirect lighting, complete the soothing environment. The school's 'living wood' consists of visible constructive elements and refined coatings, with pleated cladding cut to measure.

Image © Erieta Attali

An efficient wooden structure

A renewable resource and carbon sink, wood provides both aesthetic and functional solutions, while promoting the integration of a new urban element into the vernacular environment. Each zone has its own structural typology, with truss lattices forming sheds, trees columns/ plank round wood, ribbed CLT floors, LVL accessible roof floor coffers, wood frame walls, CLT splits, and wooden beam posts as a primary skeleton.

Image © Erieta Attali

Crossing through the elementary courtyard to the gym, trusses of 22m are arranged in a shed to form a courtyard that introduces a soft light and supports the solar panels. 

A ribbed LVL floor supporting the courtyard crosses 22m on 4 supports above the gym, and are the largest caissons of this type ever made. The playgrounds's rooftops were points of constructive innovation.

Image © Antoine Mercusot

Positive energy/ low carbon design

Multiple factors must be addressed in order to achieve the result of a building producing more energy than it consumes. The first involves limiting thermal losses. The second requires capturing renewable energies in passive and active ways, which is achieved by integrating photovoltaic panels located on the south side of the sheds. 

Electrical, kitchen, and double flow ventilation equipment were chosen for their sobriety, making natural ventilation of the classrooms possible. Protective equipment against direct external sunlight is also installed, while internal floorheating is achieved thanks to a dozen geothermal probes.

Image © Antoine Mercusot

Nordic pedagogies

Interpretations of the merits of learning modes and different pedagogies possible in schools has dramtically evolved through cognitive studies. These changes revolve around two key concepts:

1- A child's understanding is not a direct result of the teaching, but is rather an active biptoduct of the child's own research on a personal path.

2- The most impactful school learning takes place not in isolation, but in open environments within the school, society, and the world.

In addressing these issues, that means school buildings require: Different spaces in size, atmosphere, privacy, and facilities; safety openings for personal or teamwork; and ability to easily adapt learning locations.

Image © Antoine Mercusot

For OISEAU LYRE, the architects were able to incorporate some of those principles, including: participatory educational spaces for 2 or 3 classes to expand the circulation in appropriate pockets. Enable children to acquire autonomy outside of strict classroom settings through interactions with other students for work or social exchanges.

Facilitate the use of bleachers and the atrium to enable groups to participate in emulation and inventiveness through spatial situations conducive to appropriation, staging, active pedagogy, etc.

These devices were observed in Finnish schools that the architects visited with Olavi Koponen prior to the competition.

Image © Antoine Mercusot

Diversity and games

On the playground, the design focuses on fun, proprioception, and participation of each and every one in games of exploration, balance, running, and climbing. 

A walk-in cloister, enclosed by an "aerial suspension bridge", continues its descent via a slide on the bumpy ground of the courtyard. In responding to the City's preference for a relatively dry area, the architects were able to locate the more natural part at the bottom of the plot, overlooking the Marne.

Image © Jacques Merel

Equipment for children recognized by children: The Schools Prize, organized by the team of P'tits Archis around mediation workshops on the themes of architecture and urbanism, rewarded L’OISEAU LYRE. During the third edition, 4 classes of elementary schools in Ile-de-France dicussed their favorite wood projects during awareness workshops mixing discovery of candidate projects, making mock-ups, and voting for their favorite project in the “Learn - Have Fun” category.

Image © Jacques Merel

Image © Jacques Merel

Image © Jacques Merel

Image © Jacques Merel

Image © Jacques Merel

Image © Jacques Merel

Image © Jacques Merel

Image © Jacques Merel

Image © Jacques Merel

Image © Jacques Merel

Image © Jacques Merel

r2k is an architecture firm based in Grenoble, building throughout France according to public competitions won. The firm focuses on bio-based and ecological projects, and are pioneers in wood construction and bio-based insulation.

Project facts

Project name: Oiseau Lyre

Architects: r2k architecte 

Completion year: 2022 

Area: 6,257m2

Collaborators: AIDA acoustic, Vizea environment, Assystem TCE, BMF economy, Topo landscape

Construction Site: Goudenege & associés  

Wood engineer: BA wood

Wood companies: Poulingue, Briand 

Top image in the article © Erieta Attali. 

All images © Antoine Mercusot, Erieta Attali, Jacques Merel. 

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