Gironde: at Barp, the middle school and the high school come together in one place

The general and technical high school originally expected in Barp (Gironde), a town located in the very attractive Arcachon basin, was transformed into a middle school of 26,280 m², delivered to h -full in summer. It will eventually accommodate 800 middle school students, 1,400 high school students and a 48-bed boarding school. An operation financed by the regional council of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, responsible for secondary schools, and by the regional council that ensures the construction of colleges. The two communities invested a total of €81.8 million.

Two operations and landscape integration. The design of the whole is a special approach in two ways for the project management team made up of Atelier Mazières (manager) and the groups Arotcharen and Ragueneau & Roux. It was in fact, on the one hand, to create two centers on the same site with different operations and sharing common spaces, and on the other hand to integrate this operation into the pine forest. Located in the comb building, the middle school and the high school are connected by the school supply and the CDI. Each has a courtyard, its own entrance and sports area. Even the internal layouts are different to meet specific educational goals: power, with higher education in view, for high school students who have specific spaces to work together; and guidance for middle school students.

What these students all share is their view of their environment. The architects, together with the landscape designer Emmanuelle Crouzet (Kaplan Projets), worked on the integration of the building. “We wanted to go into the forest,” explains architect Patrick Arotcharen. In addition to the preservation of some trees – pines and oaks – in the courtyard and at the park, a palette of local plants of sustainable species was planted within islands at the entrance of the centers, in the courtyards and in the garden dedicated to teachers at the heart of the work, with the hope of seeing a canopy develop in the long term. To support this landscape approach, a combination of wood concrete was chosen for the structure and large glass facades allow students and teams to stay in touch with the outside world.