Lycée Simone Veil near Montpellier by Hellin Sebbag

A wooden construction, power generated by a photovoltaic system and heating and cooling with geothermal pumps make the Lycée Simone Veil, a high school in the southwestern French town of Gignac, an ecological showcase. For the community of 6500 inhabitants located around 40 km northwest of Montpellier, the new building is akin to a rejuvenation treatment: 1000 pupils can be taught in the complex, which measures 145 000 m², while 80 can be accommodated in the adjacent boarding school. Moreover, there are 8 living units for teaching staff.

If one does not consider the residential buildings, the overall plan of the complex is shaped like a parallelogram. The two long tracts, which face east to west, are home to the classrooms, special-subject rooms and administrative offices. The two transverse wings, which feature vaulted green roofs, contain the teachers’ rooms, a documentation centre as well as the cafeteria and locker rooms for the sports field directly to the west.

The entrance façade to the north is divided into three storey-high, undulant bands that mediate between the course of the access road and the north-south orientation of the main facades, which are optimal in terms of energy efficiency.

For the facade covering, the architects chose in favour of a small-scale, pixel-like structure of glazed terracotta elements in various shades of grey and blue. Bilious-green facade panels mingle intermittently among the grey and blue; on the front of the classroom wing, they form the background for the portrait of the school’s namesake.

Two-thirds wood, one-third concrete: this was the architects’ recipe for the supporting structure of the new building. For instance, the prefabricated Y-shaped supports that bear the canopy and protruding upper level of the building’s wings are of high-performance concrete. The ceilings, which are of cross-laminated timber, have been treated with a coating of grout topping to improve soundproofing. In contrast, the inner walls and façades consist primarily of wood panelling.

© Julien Thomazo

Electricity for the school is supplied by around 1650 m² of conventional photovoltaic modules and 200 m² of modules that have been integrated into the glass roof of the entrance tract. Among other things, the power is used by a heat-pump system with 32 geothermal probes, each of which is 120 m deep, that heats and cools the building. Thanks to its low energy consumption and generation of solar power, the Lycée Simone Veil has achieved the French energy-plus standard known as BEPOS (Bâtiment à Énergie Positive).