Rehabilitation of the public day-nursery for 33 children | B+C architectes

Foreword

The nursery Jules Guesde, built in 1898, constitutes part of the first buildings dedicated to small children which began to appear after the 1874 Roussel law (loi Roussel) which had the objective to reinforce the care, sanitary protection and wellbeing of new born and very young children.

The construction of this type of establishment met the need to secularize the institutions in charge of child care, the need to protect new born babies and younger children finding themselves mostly in very difficult environments and to help and educate them in matters of hygiene and health.

However by todays’ standards the disposition of the different functions and spaces of the building from over a century ago, and largely unchanged since, is far from current standards and practices set by the City of Paris’ Direction of Families and of Small Children.

The works programmed by the City of Paris aimed for a complete reworking of the building with a sustainable reorganisation of the internal spaces in line with the generic chart established by the local authority.

The access to the building was made very difficult with an elevated main level and additional subsequent works to the front courtyard disfigured the architecture of the original building.

The building is on three levels of which the lowest is below street level. It presents, in terms of spaces, inherent qualities which can be resumed as follows:

- variety  of the proportions of the internal spaces : a sequence of volumes with varied scale and dimensions
- luminosity, brightness, permeability between spaces, presence of largely glazed openings and partitions offering multiplication of viewpoints, perspectives and orientations

The building is representative of a “generous” architecture which sought, in line with the initial hygienist ideals, comfort, health and wellbeing for the occupants and quality of air which did not exist in a majority of homes at that time.

 Our project of rehabilitation aims to achieve the objectives of the client’s brief which can be resumed in four essential points:

- increasing the capacity of the day-nursery to receive 33 children with 3 distinct sections (a “small” section for new born, a “middle” section for  1-2 year olds and an “older” section for children up to 3 years old)
- modifying the reception of the public by  creating an new entrance hall on the lower ground floor accessible from the front court yard
- the transformation of the directors’ apartment on the top level into a space capable of receiving the “older” children section
- the reduction by 50% of the primary energy consumption of the building compared to the existing with an aim for 80kWhEP/m² per year established by the “Paris Climate Protection Plan” (Plan Climat Ville) of the City of Paris for all existing public buildings and facilities. The objectives aim to achieve less greenhouse emission and less energy consumption by 2020 in excess of European targets. 
 

We remain convinced that the only manner of preserving the nature and character of a place is to participate with our culture and contemporaneousness to the process of the “making” of its history.

Street side courtyard and the new entrance

The original brick building facade facing the street is richly decorated with polychromatic multi-materials with ceramic inserts representing floral motifs. On the upper ground floor level, a volume in the first plane corresponds to the building addition of 1921 in front of the original facade from 1898 which appears in a second plane set back from it.

 The courtyard at pavement level was almost entirely occupied by other subsequent additions and extensions such as a refuse store with a concrete roof and an access ramp leading to the push chair storage space on the lower ground floor.

A concrete stair leading to the upper ground floor landing 1,40m higher than street level represented the main entrance to the building.

Our project involved moving the main access to the lower ground floor after demolition of the various additions and large scale excavation of the courtyard bringing new breathing space and light.

The new circulations of stairs and access ramp are treated not just as functional links but as elements which by their generous dimensions and by the quality materials used participate in the composition of a new peaceful space around a planted centre.

The new entirely glazed facade for the lower ground floor opens out completely and offers a maximum of natural light to the internal spaces.

Street Facade

 The design intent for the project is seen in continuity with the original building, taking into account the value of its architectural heritage and its intrinsic qualities (volumes, and natural light penetration).

At the same time, it introduces elements of contemporaneousness which, inspired by the vocabulary and characteristics of the original decorations and playing with the reference to the world of plants as a leading thread, translates and presents them in the global project.

In particular, for the lower ground floor facade this play on references is expressed in the tree form of the new steel columns supporting the 1921 facade and which seem to extend the plant form decorations to the ground below, making them “take root”.

The tree replanted in the courtyard and the soft landscape treatment amplifies this “play of mirrors” between the reel and its representation.

 Rear courtyard facade

The same creative spirit and architectural treatment gives life to the rear courtyard. The existing blind facade is transformed into a translucent envelope of polycarbonate with a metal mesh serving as brise-soleil.

The polycarbonate allows natural filtered light to penetrate the large volume under the skylight.

The mesh, cut out with tree form shapes, botanical references and enriched with recognizable forms of animals, projects these forms in a shadow play through the polycarbonate.

With an external space surrounded and constrained by imposing buildings the effect obtained internally suggests an exterior open and natural world, whilst outside the forms and textures of the mesh, directly accessible to the touch and views of the children, constitute for them an interesting sensory and cognitive experience.

 The internal reorganisation to the vertical circulations, redesigned so as to allow direct access to the external courtyard from new landings, enabled the demolition of the old concrete stair thus freeing up valuable additional playing space (approximately 10m²).

The old facade on the rear courtyard did not have any openings nor primary views for the volume originally conceived as sleeping space for the children naturally lit by a rooflight.

In addition, the building code required primary views to be created on the rear facade for the new working spaces of the kitchen created in the lower ground floor.

Thus new glazed openings have been created and conceived as interruptions in the tree form mesh. The windows are set back from the mesh to comply with the minimum distances required by planning law from the neighbouring boundaries.

Treatment of internal spaces

The existing internal spaces are characterized by the quality of their generous volumes and by the large transparency of the original internal glazed partitions (maintained wherever possible), allowing natural light to penetrate deep inside.

Our project has integrated this quality by respecting volumes, maintaining the original structure and the largely glazed partitions.

The functional spaces (feeding bottles, change facilities, toilets, etc...) are concentrated on the northern and southern edges of the building in order to maintain the transparency of the original upper ground level from the street.

 Internally at upper ground floor, in the volume under the restored rooflight, the sleeping space for the “middle section” is accommodated under an igloo shaped structure naturally lit by the new polycarbonate facade.

The lower ground floor is completely reorganised with two distinct longitudinal circulations leading towards the stairs in their original positions but which have been rebuilt to new disabled and fire standards:

the southern circulation leading to the new glazed lift space is reserved for parents and their children. In contact with the entrance hall, this space offers visual contact between the two courtyards from front to back
the northern circulation is conceived to comply with fire regulations and to allow for a more technical access reserved for the personnel 
On the upper floors, access to the various spaces is organised around the principal stair and lift.

Environment

The energy consumption for the rehabilitated building is estimated at 78,5kWhEP/m² compared with 198,7kWhEP/m² initially.

A careful study of the efficiency of technical plant for ventilation, heating, air circulation inside the building and the build-up of external walls has enabled us to reach the objectives of the “Paris Climate Protection Plan “ (Plan Climat Ville) which are rarely obtained with historic buildings and this without altering the image and qualities of the original building.