Schools

Founded in 2018 by Charles Hesters and Pierre Martin-Saint-Etienne, HEMAA is an architecture firm that embraces a contextual, sobriety-based approach rooted in the living world. Each project emerges from a careful reading of its surroundings, seeking a balance between nature, use, and material. In Evry-Courcouronnes (Greater Paris – France), the Parc des Loges Childhood and Sports Center fully embodies this philosophy: a gentle, landscape-based composition built from bio- and geo-sourced materials, serving a public facility that is open, generous, and sustainable.

French architecture studio Coldefy, in collaboration with Relief Architecture, has completed the 650-pupil Robert Badinter Secondary School, the first timber-framed school in northern France. The school is located on a former railyard site, adjacent to the city’s train station and a ten-minute walk from the town centre. The design and location of the new school is part of an urban renewal project that seeks to create a consolidated public transportation hub complemented by lively civic amenities. Located on the site of the city’s Vauban fortifications moat, the site also contained catiches – subterranean chalk quarries – which had to be filled in to stabilise the ground prior to construction.

Atelier van Berlo and Ector Hoogstad Architecten designed Het Streek Lyceum in Ede. The new building redefines the secondary school as a social and spatial heart for both students and the wider community. Designed by Atelier van Berlo and Ector Hoogstad Architecten, the building fosters encounters, vitality, and a sense of belonging within a compact and circular design.

Located in Tra Mai commune, Nam Tra My district, Quang Nam province – a remote mountainous area in Central Vietnam – Nuoc Ui School serves an ethnic minority community scattered across challenging terrain and harsh weather conditions, with storms and heavy rains occurring almost every year. The project is primarily funded by the Midas Foundation, with doors and windows sponsored by Tostem, and designed by Vo Trong Nghia Architects. Its goal is to provide a sustainable, friendly, and locally adapted learning environment.

“We approach the construction of the academies as an opportunity to reactivate community culture. The proposal seeks not only to mend the existing spatial fabric of the city but also trace and reveal the valuable cultural threads embedded in its surroundings. We hope to ‘nourish’ the future of the district, weaving a more generous urban space and a richer urban life through the architectural design of two new schools.” Meng Yan.

Facing the main square of the neighborhood, the school complex presents itself as the landmark of a new centrality. Its strategic position makes this facility a real urban and architectural challenge for the city and its future development. The volumes create a landscape of roofs and vertical elements reminiscent of a village. This universe stands out from the surrounding residential buildings and highlights the programmatic richness of the facility, making it a unique architectural event.

Sammontalo is a multifunctional community building that brings together a daycare centre, preschool, comprehensive school, public library, sports and youth facilities, and student welfare services under a single, continuous tile roof, creating a shared civic hub for everyday life. Designed to accommodate around 860 children and supported by a staff of over 140 professionals, the project was realized based on the winning proposal from an open, two-stage architectural competition. At roughly 12,000 gross square meters, Sammontalo is one of the largest timber buildings in Finland.

Designed to provide a living and learning environment tailored to children while maintaining a direct connection to the outdoors, the expansion of the school includes the addition of five preschool classrooms, a learning hub, and a new entrance hall leading to the schoolyard. The original building, constructed in 1959, exhibits typical features of a primary school from that era: a two-story building with a sloped roof and red brick cladding.