École Saint-Landry Early Childhood Campus

TEAM: SO Studio
CLIENT: Sunset French Immersion Foundation
LOCATION: Sunset, Louisiana
COMPLETION: 2023
AWARDS: AIA Louisiana 2024 Award of Merit

 

This addition of three classrooms with service spaces to a former church building adds to the lower grade campus for a French Immersion school.

Each of the three classrooms in this edge-of-town/country project references historic one-room schoolhouses or vernacular red barn structures found in the context. The classrooms are nestled into their landscape, respectful of the historic context of their small community. Together they create a “village” of modern residential-scale spaces that aspire to be more than just an efficient container for students during the school day. The project aims to create a blend of modern architecture and traditional elements and massing, offering a nurturing and stimulating environment that creates a special and culturally significant learning experience for children.

The combination of contextual massing and modern detailing results in a “modern vernacular” architecture that creates a sense of play, exploration, and flight for children, creating a dynamic learning environment that complements the energy they bring to class each day.

The massing breaks down the scale of the building by allowing each classroom to be read as its own entity. This gives each classroom its own identity.

Service spaces, such as a central corridor, restrooms, offices, storage, and custodial spaces, connect the classroom spaces. A covered walkway (visible in photos) connects this addition to its original campus in the former church building.

The simple classroom volumes feature cathedraled ceilings below the gable roofs, enhancing the sense of volume throughout the interior spaces.

The building is clad in a rainscreen to provide enhanced protection for the building’s interior from South Louisiana’s wet climate by creating an ‘umbrella’ effect on the building envelope. Wood-composite panels and battens create a rhythm that walks along the facades of the classrooms. This plays off the board-and-batten cladding commonly encountered on barn buildings in the area.

Polycarbonate strips are distributed around the building in a bold striated rhythm. These increase the amount of light admitted into the building and allow the interior to gently glow, making this educational project a beacon and a landmark.

The polycarbonate panels stretch from floor to ceiling, illuminating the entire volume of the classroom interiors. This enhances the sense of height and expansiveness in the learning environment, encouraging the growth and development of the children who activate it. The polycarbonate material’s translucency also puts the structure of the building on display, enhancing the project as a teaching tool. Exposed wood studs are visible within the polycarbonate panels from inside the classrooms.

Large windows bring the outdoors in, providing students with constant visual contact with nature, which is proven to enhance focus and reduce stress. The school’s landscape features local vegetation such as the live oak visible in the photos.

The window openings are operable to introduce welcome fresh air into the classrooms during the temperate months. Windows were designed with careful attention to detail: Z-flashing lines up with the top and bottom plates that show through the polycarbonate.

ROYGBIV rainbow carpet tile makes the floor into an additional seating, learning, and playing surface and adds a range of color to the classrooms. The quarter-turn configuration creates a sense of rhythm, allowing the carpeting to dance across the floors.

All classrooms are equipped with smartboards and markerboards for state-of-the-art education.

Slopes in section join angles in plan to create complex geometries in the classroom spaces. Suspended light fixtures float in the ‘sky’ of the classrooms, augmenting the abundant natural light from the windows and polycarbonate panels. The result is stimulating interior spaces that are filled with light.

More than just a school, this project is a cultural hub that celebrates the French heritage of the Acadiana region it serves. Through thoughtful architectural design and a commitment to cultural education, the school enriches the lives of its students and the community, ensuring that the vibrant traditions of the Francophone world continue to thrive in South Louisiana through a building that is aware of the past while pushing into the future.