J. Lurçat high school and gymnasium

Jean Lurçat Collège in Saint Denis is at the junction of two basic fabrics (one landscape and one cityscape).It is both in the middle of nature surrounded by greenery and very near to the low-rise housing around it. The challenge with this building is that it must be integrated into the site without masking the park landscape, while linking the domestic scale. We designed the school as a series of separate but linked blocks or wings in a park. They are unified by buffer areas open onto planted patios that allow transparency
of the view onto the sports park and by an undulating folded metal roof that protects the patios from risks of overheating in summer and creates a microclimate in the terraced gardens. The configuration of the scheme in separate blocks identifies each of the teaching buildings while creating visual bearings and several different viewpoints from inside the school.

Client Conseil Général du 93
Programme Scientific and technical college, catering, boarding school, gymnasium, staff accommodation
Surface 12 000 m²
Budget 20 million Euros
Status Completed 2008-2013

Height 13m
2 levels above ground floor

Architect/ Mikou Design Studio
Salwa Mikou, Selma Mikou, Cecile Jalby, Iskra Pencheva

Structure Engineer/ Batiserf
Mechanicals/ CET
Quantity Surveyor/ Eclisse
Environmental Studies/ Franck Boutté

Photograph/ Florian Kleinefenn

J. Lurçat high school and gymnasium by Selma Mikou in France won the WA Award Cycle 19. Please find below the WA Award poster for this project.