The new Grande Prairie educational center is a major element of the ZAC de la Courrouze, a vast operation of urban renewal aimed at creating a new identity for the southwest of Rennes.
The building stands in the heart of the Grande Prairie district. Equipped with parks, gardens, and public spaces, this district plays the role of a green belt structuring the space of the ZAC and linking the town center to Prévalaye (160-hectare outdoor recreational area along the banks of the River Vilaine).
This site is characterized by different layers of superimposed history with its military and industrial past, which today is served by Line B of the Rennes public transport system. The new topography of the site reflects this past, and the desire to bring the park right into the district, namely with ramps and inclined planes that link the different levels. The educational center is inserted into this new topography and its varied altimetry.
The challenge was to weave links between the existing and future urban landscape, which is achieved by choosing a contemporary architectural style and a powerful identity that enhance the presence of this new facility in its site.
Beyond the choice of a soft and contemporary architectural image, the building functions efficiently and effectively, offering quality interior spaces and generous and luminous common areas, blending harmoniously into the new district.
The different elements of the brief are divided into 4 wings linked by a central gallery and exterior spaces. The stone podium of the project (the whole ground floor), recalls the walls of the former cartridge factories in the park. Stone also references an image of protection and security, like an enclosure. The façade on the Rue au Sud is enlivened by the forecourt, access to the school group and the nursery, with its broad glazed opening, whose transparency is perceived in the heart of the project, towards the gallery, as a sort of the central street marking the interior/exterior.
The building’s range of materials, whether of stone or anodized aluminum carpentry, create a range of tonalities, different ways of capturing and diffusing light, giving the building the appearance of a volume solidly anchored to its site, in a dialogue with the existing heritage of the former cartridge factories, and becoming more evanescent on its upper floors.
Team:
Architects: Brenac & Gonzalez & Associés
Client: City of Rennes
Landscape architects: Atelier Tournesol
Photographer: Sergio Grazia
