Le Blé en Herbe School

In shrinking areas like Trébédan, a village of only about 400 inhabitants in rural Brittany, schools typically close down, but since renovation works were completed in 2015, this local primary school has become the pride of the village. Upon the initiative of the mediator Anastasia Makridou-Bretonneau, two engaged teachers persuaded a group of local stakeholders—including the mayor, members of the school board, school parents, and members of the local senior citizens club (club de l’amitié)—to embark on the ambitious project of building a new school. For the task they invited artist and designer Matali Crasset. Crasset proposed a series of playful wooden architectures and furniture pieces that are not limited to a specific function but allow a variety of interpretations and uses, encouraging the school children and teachers to take an active role in defining their educational milieu. Curved wooden structures were installed both indoors and outdoors, and can be used in different configurations: a desk, for example, becomes a bookshelf, an easel, a display, a playhouse. A series of microarchitectures serve as “extensions of generosity,” as Crasset calls them, which extend the school’s functionality to make it an inviting place for the entire village. The project has transformed the school into a multi­dimensional center of activity and social interaction, where the architecture is not only at the service of the educational program but has the power to shape it in new and unexpected ways according to the individual and collective imagination of the users.

Text: Mirko Gatti