Pierre Mendès France Secondary school in Montpellier by C+D Architecture, Nicolas CREGUT & Laurent DUPORT

Article source: C+D Architecture, Nicolas CREGUT & Laurent DUPORT

This project takes place in Montpellier, south of France. It concerns the realization of a 30 000 square meter technical secondary school.

A site at the border of the rural area.

The site proposed for this competition takes place to the South entry of Montpellier, in a suburb area.
It‘s located at the articulation of a great agricultural place composed of olive trees and grapevines and a urbanized place in expansion included real estate and commercial equipments. The shape of the site is like a carpenter’s square. The particularity of this place is that there is an XVIII’s century house at the centre and a highway axis closed to the north border of the plot. The secondary school has to include all kind of study of the secondary school and also it has to propose car, mechanical and service sector. The program is ambitious and the future secondary school must receive a capacity of 1500 pupils in 30 000 square meter.

Night View

• Architect: C+D Architecture, Nicolas CREGUT & Laurent DUPORT
• Name of Project: Pierre Mendès France Secondary school
• Location: Montpellier, France
• Members and Collaborators: ECMO(Economist), EREN(Engineer), OTCE(Engineer), Carrés Verts(Landscape designer)
• Construction company: EIFFAGE
• Client: Région Languedoc-Roussillon
• Software used: AUTOCAD and ALLPLAN

Pure shape
When you are observing the secondary school from far, it looks like a purified volume, a unique white concrete monolith. The entrance is marked by a monumental portico which affirmed clearly the identity of the building. Opened at the centre, the prism gives a large view to the inside of the plot. The different buildings of this project were organized in order to get functional units and to form 7 independent buildings separated by green spaces.

The exterior spaces are considered as roofless hall. They were possible thanks to the favorable climate. The general composition is oriented East-West from the public area to organize the 7 buildings favorably in North-South way. From the entrance, we can find a conference hall. Its special shape invites the visitor to enter to the green area bordered by longitudinal buildings with 3 storeys high. On the left side, there is the library and the boarding school. On the right side, there are workshops. The 3 buildings for general courses, service sector are organized like a comb. Between the both parts, a restaurant and a cafeteria of one storey high offer the possibility for the pupils to lunch and have a break.

Pierre Mendès France Secondary school

A Mediterranean secondary school

The white concrete shape of the secondary school gives to the project the illusion of in temporal simplicity that we qualify like “Mediterranean, the relation between the white volumes and the blue sky”.

Environmental approach

Concerning the building, the implantation, the orientation and the realization of green spaces between the buildings were established to optimize the natural conditions of the sun and the natural light. Concrete was used to reinforce the thermal aspect, permanence of the construction, and finally its acoustical insulation concerning the environment and more particularly the highway axis. The green spaces are used like retention basin. The secondary school with its purified volumes gives the sensation of peace that we feel first of all as urban.

Pierre Mendès France Secondary school

Pierre Mendès France Secondary school

Exterior View

Interior View

Pierre Mendès France Secondary school

Tags: France, Montpellier

Category: School

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