The long, low school building Groupe Scolaire Simone Veil in Tremblay-en-France, just north of Paris, blends seamlessly with the surrounding traditional villa development. Yet the building leaves a distinct impression. The load-bearing façade in local limestone gives the school a solid, enduring appearance, whilst the stone's light, warm colour tone is welcoming. The 25–30 cm thick stone wall (the same type of stone used in the restoration of Notre Dame) is hard-wearing and low-maintenance. And with its thermal mass, it contributes to the building's comfort and low energy consumption. Atop the ground floor hovers a lantern-like sports hall in timber, whose roof is covered with solar panels that make the building energy-positive.
Inside the unusually spacious school, natural materials – timber and air-dried clay brick – meet. Together with floor-to-ceiling glazing onto green courtyards, they define large, airy spaces. The impression is calm, almost self-evident in its simplicity. And that's how the architectural practice Le Penhuel & Associés wants it. In their projects they strive for clean lines and pure, clear, almost silent surfaces – the kind of simplicity that vibrates in its context. Quality of life and everyday well-being are other guiding principles in Le Penhuel & Associés' buildings.
Award-winning architecture
In this case, the result is so successful that in November 2025 the building won France's foremost architecture prize, l'Equerre d'Argent, the Silver Set Square. The jury justified the award by saying they wanted to recognise a vision that redefines the school, uniting functionality, aesthetics and sustainability by combining natural materials in a school with spacious classrooms and a rooftop sports hall, thus optimising space.
Schools in France are built and financed by local authorities, who also establish the programmes. There are national reference documents, but they're not mandatory, which leads to great variation between projects. Warren Lepolard, architect at Le Penhuel & Associés, particularly highlights the importance of the close collaboration between them and the commissioning municipality, which wanted to create a school building for innovative pedagogy with a low climate impact.
“The project was made possible thanks to the strong political will from Tremblay-en-France's municipality to put the child at the centre of the project and invest in shared use of spaces between school and after-school care, and environmentally exemplary construction,” explains Warren Lepolard.
The school was designed in consultation with all stakeholders and future users (educational and technical staff, parents, municipality and education department) and is a place created to encourage curiosity, collaboration and the joy of learning.
Rethinking space for learing
The key challenge was to eliminate the traditional after-school care facility, which typically takes up over a hundred square metres of a school, and redistribute this area to expand classrooms and corridors.
“The idea was to create a more comfortable, spacious and flexible building with the same total area, where the shared function of school and after-school care meant both could have larger spaces than they would otherwise have had,” says Warren Lepolard.
The result is an ostensibly classic French school with eight classrooms, a multi-purpose hall, school canteen, offices and a caretaker's flat. But the classrooms, with easily movable furniture and partially movable walls, are significantly larger than usual – 80 m2 – and adaptable to children's and pedagogy's changing needs.
The school's spacious entrance hall forms a north-south spine that makes it easy to move through the building all the way to the playground. The dimensions turn the hall into a genuine common room, suitable for all forms of learning and exchange. Three colourful alcoves with varied furnishings increase opportunities to use the space and encourage different learning styles.
Running east-west is “The Street of 8 Classrooms”, which forms the school's second axis, an internal walkway laid around courtyards in the school's heart, with corners, tables and benches where children can work independently or in small groups.
A school designed around children
“We're proud to have been able to break with the pattern that's very dominant in France, where classrooms are reached via corridors whose sole purpose is to manage flows. Here we offer a large, fluid and coherent space, permeated by zones that children can make their own playful places for learning and relaxation, transforming movement through the building into a pedagogical experience. When we visit the site, we see the freedom the solution gives children,” says Warren Lepolard.
Added to this are places for learning and increased outdoor movement: planted playgrounds with great biodiversity – directly accessible from each classroom via terraces – a “learning roof ” with a kitchen garden and a covered sports area, courtyards that provide natural ventilation and light, a teaching kitchen, and more.
The school building itself is the answer to a multitude of questions.
"The school building and its materials are also part of the learning process itself. A school must by definition make visible its climate and environmental as well as tactile footprint. And the natural-based materials provide warmth and an aesthetic experience,” says Warren Lepolard.
Natural materials as teaching tools
The indoor environment is dominated by timber and unfired clay brick. The timber, used both in load-bearing construction (glulam, CLT, timber frame) and interiors, is visible to the greatest extent possible and creates an environment that is both calming and stimulating.
“We chose timber species based on both their technical properties and economics. The external columns are in Douglas fir, for its durability and beautiful ageing. The beams are in glulam spruce, for its lightness, and the interior claddings and furniture are in beech plywood, for its resistance,” says Warren Lepolard.
Text: Carl Johan Liljegren Photo: Vladimir Mollerat du Jeu
