Marcel Sembat high school in Sottevillelès Rouen, France by archi5

Article source: archi5

On an abandoned suburb, the project made waking up every day to attend school under an outstanding green-roofed structure as a child’s right.

The Marcel Sembat High School offers technical education about motors and vehicle mechanics. It demands vast spaces with high ceilings and large surfaces. It’s located in a declining industrial suburb of the port of Rouen, France.

Image Courtesy © Sergio Grazia, Thomas Jorion

• Architects: archi5
• Project: Marcel Sembat high school
• Location: Sottevillelès Rouen, France
• Photography: Sergio Grazia, Thomas Jorion
• Software used: Autocad and Adobe Creative Suite
• Client: Haute Normandie district.
• Collaborators: B. Huidobro, IOSIS Ouest, SPEC, ABC Décibel
• Steel structure contractor: Constructions Métalliques Charondière
• Main contractor: Millery Colas
• Surface: 12 764 m2
• Cost: 35 320 318 Euros without taxes
• Time-table: competition winner October 2005 – Completion 2011
• Steel structure size: 83 x 141 m
• Steel structure weight: 1000 tons

Image Courtesy © Sergio Grazia, Thomas Jorion

The site and the size of the programme turned the project to a combination of landscape design, architecture and town planning.

While cleared of the six early disordered 30’s buildings, the site appears like a clearing between a large park and the city. The needed substantial volume for the workshops is covered by a striped green-roof. The building starts at the boundary of the park and fits naturally in the site by the wavy design of its vegetated roof. It reconnects the existing school with its surroundings, so that its soft lines and slopes blend naturally into the physical features of the park on one hectare.

Image Courtesy © Sergio Grazia, Thomas Jorion

Ideally, the project should also respond to the social setting. We aimed to use the largest, lightest and most pleasant part of the site to house the workshops. The classrooms are displayed along the long side of the workshop, with direct visual relations, to bring back together intellectual and manual activities.The design of the roof lets natural light reaching deep inside, protects from the direct sun. The curves of the structure remind the sensual shapes of old car wings to offer a new image of manufacturing environments. Steel structure allows long span use to free the ground level of structure.

Image Courtesy © Sergio Grazia, Thomas Jorion

On the city side, we redesigned the public space to connect the high school with its workshops and with the future public library. We dare that this clear and understandable design will light up students’ and teachers’ everyday life.We also wanted to create a public space around the crossing street by making a great plaza in front of the new workshops building.

Image Courtesy © Sergio Grazia, Thomas Jorion

Awards
2014 – Architizer A+ awards, popular and jury choice
2014 – ArchiDesignClub award by MUUUZ category Schools
2013 – Roux Dorlut Prize by the French Académie d’Architecture

Image Courtesy © Sergio Grazia, Thomas Jorion

Image Courtesy © Sergio Grazia, Thomas Jorion

Image Courtesy © Sergio Grazia, Thomas Jorion

Image Courtesy © Sergio Grazia, Thomas Jorion

Image Courtesy © archi5

Image Courtesy © archi5

Tags: France, Sottevillelès Rouen

Categories: Adobe, Autocad, School

This entry was posted on Friday, April 11th, 2014 at 6:37 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.