Bobigny School Complex in Paris, France by Mikou Design Studio

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Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination.

Bobigny School Complex in Paris, France by Mikou Design Studio

January 18th, 2013 by Sumit Singhal

Article source: Mikou Design Studio

This new building is a remarkable amenity in the city centre, visible by its façades and its roof, a founding element of the project. We designed it to be both welcoming and protective, turned inwards towards inner courtyards to ensure privacy.

Building’s aerial view : Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

Architects: Mikou Design Studio
Project: Bobigny School Complex
Location: Bobigny, Paris, France
Program: Pre-school, Primary School, Sports And Recreation Center, Library
Client: City of Bobigny
Surface: 5 000 m²
Date: Completion septembre 2012
Photo Credits: Florian Kleinfenn
Software used: Autocad LT 2011, Rhinoceros, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator

External facades are composed of natural timber panels and glazed panels on a horizontal grid : Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

A visually remarkable amenity in the city centre

The city centre school in Bobigny is in a strategic urban location, bounded by three large streets and by a pedestrian space on the north. It is in the middle of an urban complex mainly composed of housing, near the city hall. Therefore this new school is a visually remarkable amenity, visible by its façades and its roof, a founding element of the project onto which the openings of the neighbouring dwellings face.We designed this amenity – which is emblematic of the city centre’s renewal – to be a strong architectural landmark in its neighbourhood that is both welcoming and protective, turned inwards towards inner courtyards to ensure the children’s privacy.

Exterior view of the building : Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

The building’s location lent itself to a three-storey mass on the north and east which gradually descends in tiers towards the south to allow maximum sunshine into the school playgrounds.

Facade alternating openings and solid timber panels of different color : Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

Therefore, on the pedestrian street, our scheme presents a two-storey flat-facaded wall-building enlivened by a random series of openings alternating with solid timber panels of different colours. This large mosaic-façade contains the entrance to the nursery and primary schools and the public entrance to the nursery and primary leisure centres, the games library and the common areas.

Inner courtyards, elementary playground : Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

Therefore the scheme’s overall form is a spiral with a three-storey front on the north, designed to base the amenity’s institutional function on the pedestrian passage and the entrance esplanade, with gradual lightening of the built mass from the second upper floor downwards to the ground floor on the east and west, thereby allowing maximum sunlight into the classrooms and the school playgrounds. This configuration allows us to propose a very identifiable building that is both unified and protective, which fits closely into its urban setting and follows the layout of the three streets that enclose it, with variation of the massing that creates a play of transparency and of visual counterpoints on the south and the south-west.

Details of the inner façade; wood and glazed panels : Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

Viewed from above, the building is seen as a succession of planted terraces on the north and east which open up and wrap themselves around the void of the nursery school playground on the ground floor and the primary school playground on a first-floor terrace, protected by a planted screen-fence. For this new facility, we chose a visibly durable material, composed of timber panels of different colours arranged in a random mosaic pattern.

The external façades are composed of natural timber panels which alternate with timber-framed glazed panels on a horizontal grid.

Welcoming and protective landmark, turned inwards towards inner courtyards to ensure the children’s privacy : Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

Inner courtyards, elementary playground : Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

Entrance opened towards the inner courtyard: Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

Zenithal opening : Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

: SITE-BOBIGNY : Image Courtesy Mikou Design Studio

: DIAG-BOBIGNY : Image Courtesy Mikou Design Studio

: BOBIGNY PLANS : Image Courtesy Mikou Design Studio

: Zenithal opening : Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

: Entrance opened towards the inner courtyard: Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

: Inner courtyards, elementary playground : Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

: Welcoming and protective landmark, turned inwards towards inner courtyards to ensure the children’s privacy : Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

: Details of the inner façade; wood and glazed panels : Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

: Inner courtyards, elementary playground : Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

: Facade alternating openings and solid timber panels of different color : Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

: Exterior view of the building : Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

: External facades are composed of natural timber panels and glazed panels on a horizontal grid : Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

: Building’s aerial view : Image Courtesy Florian Kleinfenn

Contact Mikou Design Studio

Tags: France, Paris

Categories: Autocad, Illustrator, Library, Photoshop, Pre-School Campus, Recreational facility, Rhino, School

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