Schools in Montpellier

The school unit designed by Dominique Coulon & Associés is part of Montpellier’s program for development, in order to connect the city to the sea. The school is set on a small triangular plot of land, within the urban policy for building up a new residential area.

The ground floor is taken up by the nursery school and the centre for pre and after school activities. The primary school occupies the second two floors, with a playground on top of the nursery school. The volumes are designed as autonomous elements which appear to slide over each other, with a cantilevering that provides a covered space for the playground. Each volume is colored in a different way and the bays have been designed according to their orientation and the level of light required.

Transit routes receive natural lighting from the patios and tall openings. The first floor classrooms can be accessed directly from the playground, without having to pass through the rest of the building, and are open at each end, facing both north and south. This produces ideal lighting conditions, as well as natural cooling by the passage of air through the classrooms.

André Malraux’s group of schools in Montpellier
Program: nursery school, elementary school, day nursery, dining room
Architects: Dominique Coulon & Associés
Collaborators: Fanny Liénart, Olivier Poulat
Client: Ville de Montpellier
Structural engineering: Batiserf Ingénierie
Mechanical plumbing engineering: Solares Bauen
Electrical engineering: BET G.Jost
Acoustics: Euro sound project
Landscape: Bruno Kubler
Main contractors: BEC Construction, Franki Fondations, CIM Massol, Soprema, Mistral fenêtres, Iso Therm Habitat, Serrurerie Delmas, Colas, Pousse Clanet, Ducrot, Société Frontignanaise de plâtrerie, SPC, Art et Technique du Bâtiment, Entreprise Languedoc Chantier, CFA Compagnie Française d’Ascenseurs, SPIE Sud Ouest, Temperia
Area: 3,444 sqm
Cost: 7,300,000 €
Completion: 2015