TRACKS Architectes was tasked with creating a place for small children to learn at “La Ruche” Maternal School in Perthes, France.

The project is placed in an arboreous and pedestrian area, in the heart of the historic town of Perthes-en-Gâtinais, located in the south of region Seine and Marne (77).

With conscious efforts of reducing disturbance, construction was still completed in a rapid 10 months. The city in which the project took place is a part of the regional natural park (PNRGF) which leads the project to be completed with highs environmental ambitions. The project is built in both wood framing and cladding, and its linear layout creates a spacious area that encouraging the ongoing pedestrian nature of the mall and kindergarten location.

This new space is visually more generous and reinforces the bucolic and intimate nature of the undergrowth into which the new equipment is inserted. Coming to “life” this park provides the opportunity to continue its inscription in the history of the city and offers a generous space appropriable for all Perthes residents and their children.

The form of the project borrows its archetypal and typical geometry from the historic town center. Form reinterprets their iconic profile to draw an appropriable symbol. The new school is set up on the same level, and in linear, which allows to create, volumetric identities distinct by space, with variable widths and heights by program. Inside these volumes able offer a particular spatiality and generous to the premises teaching. These volumes are very widely opened on the playgrounds and in the backdrop of the wooded “promenade”. All indoor spaces, designed with the ladder of early childhood as a major reference, are cradled in natural light, in bright and warm spaces. The scale pitched roof to 45 °, draws a house like a child could do, simple, iconic, graphic. The bugs symbols applied in classroom gable are used indoors for signage.

The courtyard is composed of a large mineral space as an extension of the yard. Peripheral areas are covered with chips of wood called BRF, for the comfort of children and improve the living conditions of trees. The schoolyard is a real undergrowth with a soft ground and hard ground. Some trees are planted to allow for a gradual renewal of afforestation.

Located at the back of the school, there is an educational garden that is composed of elevated gardening trays for the youngest. An area dedicated to storm water collection; also creates a favorable environment for the development of biodiversity.

Architect: TRACKS Architectes
Photography: Guillaume Amat