The Secondary School of Morières-lès-Avignon is part of the landscape around the city. It is located near the A7 motorway and is topped by a way station. It consists of different entities built for different scales and functions of the program. Thus, the topography of the place is preserved, the gradients are used to create breaks, places to live. This work of the ground allows the installation and organization of the different buildings and spaces. Each entity is part of the landscape.
Its general form of U develops around two plateau: the high mineral court and the lower plant court. A landscape project «already there», entered in the site, defines the location of the programmatic elements of the Secondary School. The project is then to extend, strengthen, energize, scarify the lines of force of the site.
The court is the major component of the project, the meeting place but also the transition. Its location offers direct connections with canteen, general, science and technology classrooms. This also allows an easy supervision. Here gathers the majority of the students during their free time. It is therefore necessary to propose specific qualities of enjoyable spaces.
Always respecting the concept of existing topography, the court follows the ground curves and is divided into two spaces separated by different levels. This scale of project is important to offer different spaces to the students, and perhaps make them aware of the richness that such diversity brings. Furthermore, treatment of the landscaped courtyard is voluntarily «urban» as a central place, mainly mineral, allowing differentiation from the gardens. The library overhangs the courtyards, and becomes the roof of the covered playground.
The massiveness of the Vers’ stone offers another way for the concrete to exist. A dialogue is born in the matter. These materials are the essential elements of the building. They offer a thermal inertia and a rhythm to facades. The volume of the multipurpose room marks the entrance of the secondary school, serving both signal and shelter for students.
