Pian Medoc Junior High School

Pian Medoc Junior High School
© 11H45

Pian Medoc Junior High School

BPM Architectes

ARCHITECTS
BPM Architectes

LEAD ARCHITECTS
BPM Architectes / Eric Wirth

MANUFACTURERS
Ardermo, Gerflor, Zolpan

KITCHEN
Cuisinorme

STRUCTURE
Alienor Ingenierie

ACOUSTIC
Lasa

PROJECT DIRECTOR
Delphine Pirrovani

PROJECT MANAGER
Thomas Durand

PROGRAM / USE / BUILDING FUNCTION
High school: classroom, school canteen, gymnasium

FLUID
BET Poureau

ERGONOMIST
Ergonova

PHOTOGRAPHS
11H45

AREA
3300 m²

YEAR
2022

LOCATION
Le Pian-médoc, France

CATEGORY
High School

Text description provided by architect.

Creating a school space is above all placing use at the heart of reflections. It is about revealing the site, giving it meaning, imagining spaces that support students in their learning and in their relationship with others, and designing a benevolent, inspiring, and inclusive workplace.

Pian Medoc Junior High School
© 11H45
Pian Medoc Junior High School
© 11H45

The construction of a school is an opportunity to see architecture participate in the transmission of knowledge.

Located in the town of Pian-Médoc, the 3.2-hectare plot on which the junior high school is located is heavily wooded, bordered to the north by a pine forest and to the south by a busy road; on the west side are houses and on the east a plot, recently deforested, and constructible.

Pian Medoc Junior High School
© 11H45
Pian Medoc Junior High School
© 11H45

The project retains a wooded area left in its natural state within the 75 m setback zone along the road. This wooded fringe creates a filter between a passing road and the junior high school designed as a setting in the middle of the forest.

The layout of the roads was guided by the constraint of local urban planning while sparing the preserved wooded border as much as possible.

Pian Medoc Junior High School
© 11H45
Pian Medoc Junior High School
© 11H45

This situation contributed to shaping both the volumes of the buildings and the materiality of the junior high school and its equipment. The location of the buildings is thought out according to the vegetation and not the other way around.

The constructions adapt to the site with the desire to create a learning space linked to nature.

Pian Medoc Junior High School
© 11H45
Pian Medoc Junior High School
© 11H45

The project is designed around two structured North-South axes, creating visual breakthroughs and transparencies.

The junior high school thus opens up completely to its environment and the architecture allows nature to penetrate into its heart of it.

Pian Medoc Junior High School
© 11H45
Pian Medoc Junior High School
© 11H45
Pian Medoc Junior High School
© 11H45

The architectural approach is based on a poetic reading of nature and the forest materialized by the use of wood on the facade and the integration of a vertical frame marked by wooden posts spaced 1.3 meters apart or in hollow joints.

Finely chiseling the buildings, these spines, as they gain height, unfold in the overhangs of the roof.

The project consists of 4 entities whose volumetry is based on two architectural typologies: a light concrete base and a wooden construction, mainly in maritime pine, a local species. The base is relatively closed, it creates an enclosure on the ground floor around the protected playground.

Pian Medoc Junior High School
© 11H45
Pian Medoc Junior High School
© 11H45
Pian Medoc Junior High School
© 11H45

The entire project revolves around this outdoor space, which thus becomes a place of life contributing to conviviality and exchange. Its layout creates various spaces materialized by mineral and vegetal areas, play and expression spots, and calm and relaxation locations.

The project complies with environmental regulations at an E3C2 level of the E+C- Label with a reuse issue: 80% of the woodcut on the plot was used in the construction.

Pian Medoc Junior High School
© 11H45
Pian Medoc Junior High School
© 11H45
Pian Medoc Junior High School
© 11H45


Pian Medoc Junior High School
North facade
Pian Medoc Junior High School
South facade


Pian Medoc Junior High School
Plan - Ground floor