However, the new school building is capable of opening up inside itself, creating a different landscape, an unusual place, a utopia. The Josephine Baker School in La Courneuve is part of the reserved town planning scheme adopted by Bernard Paurd , in an attempt to pull together the different signs and traces that are superposed on the site. As if the map had marked the territory with a tattoo.
The school is built on a trapezoid-shaped plot of land ; Dominique Coulon assumingly inspired by the history, the program, and his previous work impulsively twists shapes, a matter that recurs constantly in his projects. The building and zoning constraints, enable Coulon to separate the elementary and the nursery school. His proposal sketches out a unitary organization, organized in the three dimensions of the space between two poles linked by a system of ramps.
Thus, the nursery school classrooms are positioned to the east, on a floor cantilevered above the entrance, and the elementary school classrooms occupy areas to the west overlooking interstitial gardens. The school building gives the impression of an enclosed shape with few openings notwithstanding the sliding volumes, the folds and asymmetry.
Many notches fracture the facades, a symbolism where an infinite universe opens up inside the strictly defined area to welcome a heterotopia reserved for the children. Acting as an initiatory place where students can be cut off from the adult world, and adopt the necessary distance and momentum to better dive into it in due course.
Meticulous attention was given by the architects to the walkways from one space to another; from the entrance and onwards the building works in a subtle two-fold movement of advance and retreat. The corridors change shape and expand in front of the classroom doors and receive abundant natural light from the zenith, as if the better to define themselves as areas for decompression before taking a deep breath and plunging into the work areas. Moreover, the playground canopy plunges above and beyond the ramp that leads to the rooftop sports areas.
