Construction of the International School Campus

This project aims to create a single, comprehensive educational facility welcoming pupils from primary school through to preparatory classes for higher education.
The campus is located on two blocks within the ZAC, connected by a street that becomes its main forecourt. It brings together several functions: primary school, lower secondary school, upper secondary school, learning resource centre (CDI), multi-purpose hall, catering facilities, boarding school, and staff housing. Ultimately, it will accommodate 2,190 students.

The overall design is based on two key concepts:

- the urban morphology of the “citadel,” in the noble sense of the term, which resists and protects
- the idea of a sanctuary that belongs to the city while preserving a sacred quality
- a vegetated inner world
The campus is both protective and open to the city. Certain functions are sheltered at the heart of the blocks, while others open onto the city and engage in dialogue with the surrounding neighbourhood.
The International School Campus plays on contrasts. The protective, mineral enclosure defined by the street-facing façades, formed as BFUP blades, gives the project a unified and rigorous character, while the block interiors and the forecourt are designed as landscaped spaces. The inner façades are composed of flax-fibre screens with free-form geometries, providing solar protection for exposed rooms, enhancing the play of light and shadow, and supporting vegetation.

Functions shared by the operation of the campus are grouped within the plinth of each block. This plinth establishes a level of courtyards raised above street level. Students access the various courtyards and the block interiors through landscaped areas with open ground. Teaching spaces rise around the courtyards, conceived as cloisters overlooking the city.