Le Blé en Herbe

Designed by Matali Crasset this rural school in Trébédan, France, partly a renovation of the existing buildings and partly new, is conceived as an activity platform.

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“The notion of transmission has always been at the heart of my designer life. For this school project I questioned myself about this notion from an architectural standpoint.”

This school project pursues going beyond the form and the function, driven by a singular structure where all constraints are deactivated. Buildings are defined as activity platforms like tables opened up to the outside.

Between the four foundations run identical-sized partitions. Their nature is defined depending on their exposure to the sun, to the south the partitions are transparent (and triple-glazing) and to the north they become opaque.

Matali Crasset, Le Blé en Herbe, France 2015

The architecture of transition with a minimum aesthetic commitment to table platforms quite naturally sits in the existing building, by bringing additional spaces to the two renovated classrooms.

The space gained looking outside will quite naturally become an outdoor patio ideal for proposing more extensible structures which will complete this basic structure composed of tables and chairs. The existing parts aren’t touched but the necessary aspects are installed to give teaching a new look. The renovated classes are identical to the new classroom built from scratch.

The cosy furniture blends the warmth of wood and the hardiness of metal.

The construction of a new building for the kindergarten, creates a school centre in the shape of an angle: the classes are no longer right next to each other, but they communicate and a sheltered area allows to extend activities to the outside such as artistic ones. All buildings outside this central area are shared with the village inhabitants. The project reasserts the driving force of the school in the village.

The intention of opening a multi-usage school is also shown by its four “extensions of generosity”. These are micro-wooden architectural structures with an identical bubble shape.