Paul le Quernec Architects has completed a childcare centre on the former Miribel military barracks in Verdun, France. The clay-brick building, which opened in January of this year, spans nearly 1750 square meters across a radial floorplan that extends onto a range of enclosed outdoor spaces. The project is as striking for its geological aesthetics as it is its sustainability credentials: a building where performance is embedded in the architecture itself. The daycare centre marks the first public building of a radical redevelopment that will transform the military space into a mixed-use neighborhood for 800 residents.
Context
The site that once housed the army barracks is exceptionally open: empty since the mid 1990s, it is a landscape with very little built context. Le Quernec used this blankness to his advantage: the daycare reads less like architecture and more like landform—an earthern mass that emerges from the ground, an ancienct agglomerate or sandstone slab worn smooth over time. Built from Porotherm clay bricks and finished with a lime mortar, in colours that evokes the strata of stone, the building prioritses visual and acoustic ambience, durability and minimal maintentance.
"When a conventional facade becomes dirty or scratched, it requires cleaning or repair," explain the architects. "Ours does not have this need; any dirt would blend into the nuances of its pattern. As for scratches, the plaster itself is carved to create its texture, so it is naturally very thick." The roughness of the shell outside is the direct counterpart to the softness of the interior world that he has designed within."
Interior
Inside, the building floorplate is designed for functionality. It avoids corridors and uses a petal-like arrangement to organise space through adjacency, ensuring that lines of sight extend through multiple rooms—a necessity for children centres and the safety of children. Each classroom is edged by its ancillary rooms; a flower's center and its petals. The classroom spaces are completed with radial timber ceilings that fans outward a central skylight. The effect is elegant but childlike, reminiscent of a circus tent or a fort made from blankets. The reception and cloakroom areas are housed in a large shared room at the centre of the building.
Heating and Cooling
Eleven south-facing, dome-shaped skylights bring natural light deep into the floorplate, reducing the need for artificial lighting while also helping regulate temperature. Each skylight has a glazed surface of almost three square meters and is tilted at a 17° angle from vertical, an orientation aligned with the winter sun. In winter, this angle allows sunlight to enter more directly, so its heat can be absorbed and stored in the building’s main spaces. In summer, the same skylights help release rising hot air, improving ventilation. Sunshades prevent excessive direct sunlight from entering, protecting the building from overheating.
