Located in the heart of a district undergoing renewal, the Philippe Auguste Middle School was built in the late 1970s and now shows significant technical and functional deterioration. In response, the Val-d’Oise Department has launched an extensive restructuring and extension program.
To accommodate the growing number of students, a new cafeteria is housed in an independent building. This frees space in the main building for additional teaching rooms. Relocating the cafeteria creates an opportunity to imagine new spatial sequences, conceived as a calm parenthesis within the school day.
Given the constrained geometry of the site, the design emphasizes the building’s elongated form rather than depth. Oriented toward the site boundary, the dining hall opens onto a quiet landscaped area, deliberately withdrawn from playground activity.
Urbanity is not sought through formal architectural order, but through a sensitive, almost physiological atmosphere closely connected to the living environment. From within the school grounds, the extension appears largely opaque, with only limited openings onto the courtyard.
