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PFT of the new School Trait D'Union

Urban ecosystem, civic environment and ICP
2021
SAINTE THÉRÈSE

Client: CSSMI
PCI architect: L’OEUF

School construction team: GBI ingénierie,
VLA, TLA, STANTEC,
LANDSCAPE VERSION

Participants: SCHOOL TEAM, PUPILS, PARENTS, PARTNERS, CITY PLANNING DEPARTMENT, CITY RECREATION

 

In a climate of general adaptation, this project takes on the challenge of generating an hybrid ICP! After a year of extensive telework practice, we have all become experts! So let’s hear together how to change the world with this new tool: the virtual. We can identify its strengths and weaknesses, this kind of augmented reality and/or limitations of all forms. This project goes beyond that. It produced surprise, understood the advantage of the distance that was reduced when finally two people could meet easily in an even more unexpected territory. “We worked with a constrained integrated design process. This is the most efficient way to achieve better projects. It is sometimes uncomfortable, even confusing. But it works! We chose two so-called longitudinal themes to start the discussions for this ICP: movement and belonging. Children need both to learn. We will keep asking: “How will the child interact and move here? Why will the child like his or her school better and how? As we went along, new cross-cutting themes emerged: a set of key questions and indicators that are unique to it and that accompany the design process, because each project is unique.” Sudhir Suri

This project and its unique structure highlighted the needs of the students at this particular school. These needs led to the development of priorities and measurable indicators to free the design team from any illusions or preconceptions. The resulting project is true and embraced by the community already involved in the ICP. The resulting school has already taken different directions from the original assumptions to create a new, multi-use, biophilic, safe, adaptive and inclusive territory for the students but also for its entire community.

Drawings Ⓒ Rémi Maynegre