Description

This handsome Lycée in Bordeaux is the last work of architect Michel Sadirac (who died in 1999). Designed in association with Olivier Brochet, Emmanuel Lajus and Christine Pueyo (BLP), the scheme reflects Sadirac’s previous work in its synthesis of modern rationalism and contemporary lightness and dynamism. This can be appreciated in the precisely engineered façade treatment, which meets the tight urban site in a sensitive contextual form without ever resorting to pastiche. This is a strong robust architecture, which clearly states its modernist lineage whilst weaving its external spaces around the existing site edges with their three-storey houses and back gardens. In particular, the retention of most of the existing mature trees on site exemplifies the way in which the tight modern lines of the new provide a resonant contrast to the rustic forms of nature. For example, the framing of a large oak tree in the southwest courtyard enables the tree to take on the quality of sculpture when framed by this type of architecture. Here the context is everything, and the architect’s undoubted skill in marrying landscape and architecture is a key design statement.

The Magendie Lycée replaces the original five-storey prefabricated buildings designed by Courtois-Sallie- Sadirac in the late 1960s, and due to its spread across the large rectangular site, the new building never rises above four storeys in height. A large single span concrete canopy marks the school’s main entrance from the street. Cast in-situ and supported on slim, concrete filled metal pillars, the canopy superbly establishes the public presence of the building, occupying the entire southwestern street frontage. Between the canopy and the building, light filters through an aluminium sun-break, providing an attractive shaded area on sunny days which is furnished with timber benches. This sets the tone for the rest of the building, and the spaces unfold as an alternating sequence of solid and void spaces, which the architects variously describe as courtyards, cloisters and patios. The rhythm for the building is established by the use of a 4.8 metre grid, which works well for the layout of study rooms as well as the façade system itself. The 50 centimetre horizontal service zone created by the structural depth of the slab flooring is rigorously maintained around the perimeter of the building and provides a discrete and efficient zone for ventilation and service ducting.

In order to counter the limited architectural palette of materials used here, the depth of the window reveals on each elevation varies in relation to the façade’s orientation. For example, the main southeast façades have the deepest set glazing to provide maximum solar shading. Thus the concept of ‘variation within sameness’ enables a subtle environmental experience to emerge during the course of each day, hot or cold, wet or dry. The entire composition creates a play of light and shadow, which is carried through to enliven the interior passageways. Light filters through slatted shutters and is then diffused through screen-printed glass (designed by a graphic arts student at the lycée), which is then further modified as it enters the space through glass bricks set into the concrete walls of the corridors and circulation spaces.

---

Originally published in: Mark Dudek, Schools and Kindergartens: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2015.