Restructuring at the Van Gogh High School by Ateliers O-S architectes

Description of project by Ateliers O-S architectes

Located on the Aubergenville plateau, overlooking the Seine, just before Mantes-la-Jolie, the Lycée Vincent Van Gogh is not far from the town center, between fields, a suburban area, and a large social housing complex. It was designed by the architect Jean François Laurent and was inaugurated in 1991. The building emerges from the cultivated plains to culminate in the foyer, a high point identified by its urban square.

A star-shaped organization distributes 3 antennas which successively house the administration with the artistic and linguistic centers, the scientific department, and a 600-seat restaurant which is organized into 7 dining rooms distributed around a refrigerated fountain.

The project to restructure the half-board consists of a new living space 2 m wide at the edge of the existing building. It integrates the entrance and exit of the students, adds more space, and provides a new glazed façade in the front courtyard allowing views. The project can be read through the following themes: access and organization, rationalization and prioritization of space, and light and spatial quality.

The kitchen, preparation, and storage areas are organized on the western façade into a service layer. The kitchen takes advantage of the existing access for deliveries and waste on Rue Pierre Legland. This organization frees up a large passage space for the student canteen, which benefits from a maximum of natural light. The school thus has a large, flexible canteen that can be arranged in different configurations, with flexible partitions, even if it means temporarily transforming it into a conference or meeting room.

To optimize the entry and exit flows, which are currently congested at one point, the project proposes an extension of approximately 2 m to the three ground floor façades, in the form of a covered and closed gallery.

This new living space will

- solve the waiting problems by channeling the flow of students, for better organization and circulation,
- to free up the ground floor and open up the restaurant areas,
- to offer more surface area than the existing right of way for a controlled price,
- to offer large glass facades at both ends of the canteen to compensate for the depth of the building in terms of light
to compensate for the depth of the space in terms of light,
- to give legibility and coherence to the project.

The gallery extension adds a plinth to the ground floor of the building. The project offers visual transparency from east to west, as well as identity and new legibility. In addition to this transversality, the gallery crosses the entire building to provide light and space to the technical and active spaces.


Restructuring of the half-board service at the Van Gogh High School in Aubergenville by Ateliers O-S architectes. Photograph by Cyrille Weiner.

Light is the main material of the project. The new half-board project decides to work with natural, artificial, direct, or indirect light. Thus, the large dining room benefits from a generous supply of natural light at both ends (east and west facades), as well as from the existing skylight, which has been preserved and brings light to the heart of the space. As the sun can enter in the morning, before the first service, through the eastern façade, we propose external blinds which will be raised for lunch. In the winter, the dining room will be able to take advantage of the sunlight to heat the room.

A grid of steel posts punctuates the new facades at the periphery of the existing building. The facades are organized according to the program, with large openings revealing the interior volumetry. The east and west facades (dining room) are fully glazed to allow for a more open plan. The east and west (dining room) facades are fully glazed to allow for deep light penetration, while the kitchen facade is clad in metal cladding panels.

An active ceiling made of alternating larch sections inlaid with melamine-type acoustic baffles makes it possible to regulate both acoustics (diffraction and absorption phenomena) and luminosity by inlaying lines of light. This ceiling offers a light and warm surface that floats above the pupils. This technical ceiling integrates all air inlets and outlets.

The vertical walls along the dining areas are treated with a translucent material often used in half-board accommodation, providing light and reflective effects that give depth to the space.

The project improves the energy efficiency of the building by insulating it from the outside to eliminate thermal bridges. The roof, which was leaking badly, was restructured. We proposed heating the dining rooms through the floor, which ensures more homogeneous and comfortable heating. The completely restructured kitchen and half-board can cater to a population of 850 guests, but can also cope with a growing population of half-boarders and guests.

The project reactivates a low volume lacking in light that extends over its boundaries and increases the surface area of the equipment, without touching the floors. It proceeds by lateral expansion and extrusion, offering the minimum thickness necessary to give a respite to the existing spaces and totally requalify them. It is a new envelope, a subtle device It is a new envelope, a subtle device that works in contrast with the existing building.