Rosa Parks School Complex | Brenac & Gonzalez & Associés

Focus on the Rosa Parks School Complex, an example of enriching the “vocabulary” of school architecture!

The Rosa Parks School Complex is located within the Gratte-Ciel ZAC, a major urban renewal project that provides a new identity to the centre of Villeurbanne. It stands at the entrance to the future district and establishes a link with the existing urban fabric.

The new building is positioned along its peripheral boundaries and is organised in an L-shaped configuration. It articulates the connection between the future ZAC to the west and adjoins the existing built fabric to the east.

The north-west corner of the building is treated as a landmark element, a pivot that organises the interweaving of programmes and establishes a balanced scale relationship with the future neighbouring plots.

A gradual stepping of volumes from north to south creates, at the north-west corner, a slender figure and, on the courtyard side, a terraced volume that echoes the Gratte-Ciel towers while ensuring optimised sunlight exposure.

On the street side, the building is conceived as a unified volume, a single material expression in white brick sculpted over three levels. The brick façade extends at the level of the upper playgrounds to integrate them into a continuous volume. A terracotta mashrabiya continues this expression, producing a kinetic and playful play of shadows while filtering the southern sun.

The courtyard and the playground canopy at level 2 extend, within the heart of the block, this interplay of solids and voids. The various material treatments of the building — whether matte or glazed brick, metalwork, or aluminium joinery — express different shades of white and different ways of capturing and reflecting light, giving the building the perception of a unified and almost ethereal white volume. In addition, landscaped features in the form of educational gardens are developed at levels R+1 and R+3.

The work on height leads to the deployment of staircases, which become opportunities to shift lines and perspectives, thereby enriching the architectural vocabulary associated with school programmes.

Beyond the role and position of such a facility within this rapidly changing area of Villeurbanne, our proposal seeks, through the choice of a soft yet contemporary architectural image, to offer rigorous functionality, high-quality interior spaces, and generous, legible and luminous shared areas that fully integrate into the new Gratte-Ciel district of Villeurbanne.

Technical data

Rosa Parks School Group

Program
Address : 138 rue Francis de Pressensé, 69100 Villeurbanne 
3900 m2
Client : Ville de Villeurbanne

Architect Brenac & Gonzalez & Associés
Landscape JM Rameau
2020
eco-design

Photos © @sergio.grazia