Replacing an aging school whose deteriorated envelope and outdated spatial organization no longer met contemporary standards, the École des Saules marks a fresh start. Rather than rehabilitating the existing building, Bergeron Bouthillier Architectes was mandated to design an entirely new primary school on a wooded site at the heart of a developing residential neighbourhood in L'Assomption, northeast of Montreal. The 4,700 m² building accommodates 13 classrooms, including 4 pre-kindergarten rooms, a double gymnasium, a library, a multipurpose room, and full after-school care facilities.
What defines the photographic reading of this project is the sustained dialogue between the building and its natural setting. The L-shaped plan frames the schoolyard while multiplying sightlines toward it, so that the surrounding trees are always present, always part of the image. Inside, warm wood tones dominate, creating an atmosphere that is calm and grounded rather than institutional. The gymnasium treats wood as a signature material, an echo of the wooded landscape that gives the school its name and character.
The multipurpose room opens generously onto the courtyard through large glazed surfaces, collapsing the boundary between inside and outside in a way that is both architecturally clear and visually rewarding. Upstairs, the corridor offers views down into the gymnasium, introducing a sense of layered activity and depth that keeps the common spaces from feeling static.
The facade composition draws on the language of Quebec's new generation of school buildings, combining aluminum, wood, and accents of fleur-de-lys blue. The result is an identity that feels specific rather than generic, rooted in its context while remaining fully contemporary. For the camera, these material and chromatic choices offer texture and contrast, particularly in the quality of light that filters through the surrounding canopy and plays across the building's surfaces through the seasons.
Photography by TARMAC - Damien Ligiardi — Studio de photographie d'architecture, Montreal.
