Jean Louis Étienne School / archi5

The school group is the very first element of a new district in the Coupvray development area. More than having to deal with the particular constraints of a site, the main challenge is to create a founding and structuring public facility for the future inhabitants of this extension of the town. The building expresses the town-country boundary through two distinct vocabularies, thus creating a transition between the public and the private. From the outside, the Hainaut blue stone gives it a mineral aspect that fades away in its heart to the benefit of the organic. The facades are softer, round, and trimmed with larch wood, facing the great landscape of the Marne valley.