MAR

Accomplished performance: wooden schools, Limeil-Brevannes, France by r2k-architectes.

Photos: Jussi Tiainen.

In France mayors have the power to choose architects and decide how public buildings should look. Often this power is exercised with considerable skill and care producing public buildings of excellent quality, as is the case here. The Mayor of Limeil-Brevannes had hitched his political wagon to sustainability, and in his view this meant wooden schools. The practice r2k-architectes, were only too happy to oblige with this accomplished performance, executed without drama.

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NOV

Vox pop: The Urswick School by Avanti Architects.

Photos: Tom de Gay.

Avanti Architects originally made their name with scholarly restorations of famous Modernist buildings such as the Finsbury Health Centre in London by Bertold Lubetkin. The Urswick School, built in a deprived borough of London called Hackney, is however a new build project designed by the practice. The building has just won this year’s Peoples Choice Award at the Hackney Design Awards. The awards scheme is designed to stimulate and promote good design in the borough.

Let’s see what got the locals excited.

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MAR

Stripy school: Pant Pere Pescador Kindergarden by Abar Architects and Ovidi Alum.

school facade

Photos: Aitor Estévez

Calm and cool stays this minty looking kindergarden, thanks to careful climate control that Abar Architects and Ovidi Alum achieved by incorporating its many environmental features into the design. But I am sure that the young children frolicking in the courtyard think its stripy façade is fun. It also provides a distinctive identity that children can relate to and identify with as their very own. Read more

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