2012 – Nursery school : El Nido _ Poissy France
Program Montessori nursery school inside a private house
Floor area villa : 190 m² / school : 185 m²
Place Poissy, France
Owner Private
Team Eric Cassar, Konstantinos Antoniou, Javier Murillo
Calendar studies : February 2012 – end of work : September 2012
Engineering Ingénet
Chartered building surveyor Socotec
Contractors KBK / Electricity : CP Elec
The school is situated on the garden level and converted so the house can preserve some privacy ( 2 separate entries, no shared visual space). The architectural quality of the existing building made with stones is preserved.
The school entrance is located at the rear of the building. Acces is after going across the courtyard and a bioclimatic greenhouse. It improves the thermal efficiency of the school and generates a buffer space between inside and outside. This greenhouse is like a closed courtyard in which children will grow plants. This winter garden is made of transcluent coloured polycarbonate panels in order to create sets of lights (as sained glass).
The reflexion of the two slopes colored roof is projected on the ground. The ground colors spread over the walls. Thus, there is no separation between the ground, the walls and the ceiling anymore. More than a space, we create an environment.
Besides, the ground is not flat but relief. It improves the children motor skills. We played with the accessibility constraint : the disabled ramp structures, links, animates and identifies the school.
At night, the lighting is ensured by neons of various colors (yellow and white). Their implantation on the ceiling interacts with the ramp.
A row of windows in the upper part of the wall brightens the school. Nevertheless, the room only has a few points of emerged views. To overcome this default inherent to the context, we created a skylight which enables a piece of heaven and a virtual window.
This virtual window is the expression of our researches on the concept of the nspaces : it is a video screen embedded into the ground which broadcasts a real-time image of the great landscape filmed by a camera mounted on the roof. Thus, children can enjoy this live picture and be more aware of the weather, of the outside environment either in the rain or under the sun.