The school complex is organized into three “peninsulas”, which form two school playgrounds facing south, ensuring maximum sunshine to the most heavily used areas, i.e., classrooms, corridors and playgrounds. The school is laid out as a landscape of staggered and planted terraces. The playgrounds facing south take full advantage of the sunshine and of the landscape overhead.

A metal awning (opening gradually) follows the gentle contour of the classrooms, bringing unity to the interior and exterior spaces, the latter being linked via the covered playground which doubles back along the planted mall. This arrangement helps to separate the playgrounds from the mall and the apartment houses adjacent to the site (which in some cases rise up to seven stories) and provides some shade from the hot summer sun.

This context offers a teaching opportunity on the subject of biodiversity, mainly thanks to two areas: the teaching garden, designed as a terrace accessible from the common areas on the first floor, provided with large planters for growing herbs and vegetables; the reading room on the mezzanine of the library, with a view over all the terraces.

The student dormitory is designed according to four main architectural principles. First of all, the project as a whole is organized to function rationally (superposition of the structure and technical shafts) and to be compact. Its distance from the rest of the program (it does not overhang the roof of the school or the one of the gymnasium) gives it a certain independence and detachment. As the dormitory is laid out as far north as possible with a minimum of façade facing onto the avenue Jean-Jaurès, the platform does not block the sun. This ensures that the playgrounds enjoy plenty of sunshine. The light facade is composed of perforated metal panels, with some being stationary and others sliding. They serve both to filter views from the street and as sunbreaks for sunshine from the east and the west.