(BDT_13_050) Primary School Rolle - Building Types Online

Description

The existing school, which was originally built during the 1930s, required a significant expansion of its accommodation including a new school kitchen and refectory/dining hall, a music room, a computer suite, a gymnasium and six classrooms. All of the new facilities had to be accommodated within the only available site, a location directly in front of the existing school. Building on confined sites of this type and the consequent loss of outside play space is a key issue for many primary schools up-grading their facilities to address the needs of the 21st century. Here the problem was made easier by the level drop away from the existing building, which enabled the designers to effectively bury much of the new building below the level of the existing site. As a result, the new building melts discreetly into its mature context, sight lines are relatively unobstructed and little precious outside space is lost.

The commission was won in an open competition in 1999. Devanthéry & Lamunière’s scheme was a bold and distinctive architectural statement which stood out. The new building is modern in style and in its use of materials, avoiding a more conservative architectural approach, which may have been viewed as appropriate in this historic setting. On first sight when viewed from the existing school buildings it appears as a relatively small entrance pavilion (with a large canopy), which sits on a new raised podium, a little like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s National Gallery in Berlin. It is difficult to comprehend where all of the accommodation is located. However, on mounting the raised podium, it is apparent that the bulk of new space is below, expressed on the outside by way of six shiny stainless steel funnels, protruding up through the podium floor at various skewed angles. They act as light scoops, aiding the penetration of natural light into the deep plan beneath.

The two-storey walls of the new extension only become evident when viewed from the side as the building steps down the site, with a generous one- and two-storey façade at the rear enjoying views into the wooded landscape beyond. Although using a heavy concrete frame and panel construction, the main façades appear light and generally transparent, with the appearance of flush finished curtain walling in alternate green-blue glass and aluminium panelling. On first view there appears to be a regular pattern to this façade, however, on closer inspection the façade treatment is complex, with alternate wide or narrow panels in the horizontal plane which shift across the façade between first and ground floor. The horizontal façade banding on the rear and side façades are tripartite with an additional third upper band, which is in solid concrete panelling. The concrete is lightly coloured during the mix, in faded yellow-ochre and gives a warm soft appearance to what is usually a somewhat cold, austere finishing material.

Colour is a medium which is used externally throughout this new building to give it an attractive presence within the existing campus. Yet colour is used in a subtle, almost painterly manner, with the aforementioned cools of the green-blue glazing contrasting with yellow coloured solid concrete panels and on the side façades, an earthy terracotta colour in two or three hues of red. This appears to relate the roof plain to the raised podium, a visual connection, which also picks up on the reddish coloured roof tiles of the existing school buildings. Everywhere there is evidence of a carefully considered material and colour matching, used as a sort of colour form language; for example the orange-red colouring of the side façades appears as a brief strip at the corners of the main rear façade, the orange and yellow thus sitting side by side, colour expressing wall thickness, an effect which gives the building an elemental, almost blockish appearance. Construction and form is expressed through colour rather than by way of surface articulation.

By comparison the interiors are somewhat disappointing, largely comprising of white walls and ceilings with a wooden floor, a largely colourless environment that feels a little inconsistent with the rich colour harmonies of the exterior. However, it is interesting to experience the building in use and understand the way in which views of the landscape outside and even the colour of pupils’ coats and books bring the interior to life. It appears that it was a deliberate choice to keep the interiors cool and colourless, a foil to the heat and activity of the children rushing in and out of their lessons.

The planning is straightforward, with the entrance at podium level containing a meeting/seminar room, the kitchen and the refectory. The façade uses a couple of strange bubbles windows, a slightly surreal feature when viewed on the carefully composed exterior. A broad staircase leads down from the entrance to the main block of accommodation below which has a generous central corridor doubling as a cloakroom area. The light scoop funnels draw suprising levels of natural light and ventilation into this space. There is a run of five identical classrooms, which open directly onto the wooded landscape beyond. The computer room is located on the street side of the corridor, an inconsistency which is at one with the charming if slightly quirky design of this primary school. Rooms which require less light such as the gymnasium and the locker room are on the school side and are pushed into the ground-scape, but nevertheless they benefit from generous natural light from the side elevations. It is an economical layout, which is surprisingly light and airy for what appears to be an underground school.