Set in the urban fabric like a landscape that softens the built-up surroundings, the Maison de l’Enfance is designed as a succession of small, inhabited hills. It intentionally spreads out horizontally to avoid imposing tall volumes on the built-up setting and unfurls a ribbon of roofs, treated as meadows for the children to play in. The gentle slope of the site is used to install the building’s topography of stacked levels, one of which is partly buried.
The exterior façades are composed of a slab layout of different coloured ceramic panels: these large elements are outlined by frames in light grey plaster. Photovoltaic panels are positioned all along the acroter, which is integrated into the railing.
The sheltered terraces and grassy roofs are all open for games and strolls when events are held. The succession of gentle slopes delimits the different play areas for the crèche, the nursery and the elementary school. The terraces are filled with aromatic plants and the children can garden in them.
The U-shaped building creates a vast inner courtyard around which the two schools are organised. The shared facilities—dining hall, library, computer room, audiovisual room—are grouped together at the bottom of the U, while the crèche is located in the more peaceful space at the top. The two schools share the inner courtyard, with the covered playgrounds forming a strip that determines the elementary school courtyard on the one side, and the nursery school courtyard on the other. The levels of each courtyard are not flush, which thus marks the physical limit between the two.
The construction has been envisaged as an assemblage of prefabricated elements: posts (modular), floors (alveolar plate), façades (prefabricated HQE® panels, insulating or glazed). The industrialisation of the elements lowers construction time.