Saint- Jean Schoo 1من اصل3

from old 1960s design to a creative fantastic creation
the aim of Saint- Jean schools development in Strasbourg, France: to break
with the monotony and repetitiveness that are characteristic of this highly
rational 1960s building.
Dominique Coulon has worked like a skilled surgeon, cutting, stitching,
removing and adding in all the right places, all with the utmost precision. He
has enlarged the windows on either side like huge eyes, creating new
perspectives which enhance me whole. He has lowered the sills of all the
classroom windows so that the children can see what is going on outside.
He has cut through the roof so that light floods in through new skylights.
On the ground floor, to define the space occupied by the hall, Dominique
Coulon allows himself a great deal of freedom, although it is extremely
well-controlled, by playing with curved walls and ceilings, like Le Corbusier
at his best. The contrast between the four-square rectangular shape of the
classrooms and the use of curves in this public ground- floor area is a great
success
On the inside there is a room for the youngest children in which it is not
only the walls and ceiling that are curved- the floor is also curved, and soft.
Light filters through the skylights in the, roof, scattering reflections, and
through the wall through a number of chinks in a random pattern; it is tinted
pink by the reflections, in clear contrast with a few whitish grey areas,
creating an almost surrealistic space where the children will have no trouble
dreaming.