StoVentec ventilated cladding dresses a brick and stone wood school

On January 4, 2021, upon returning from the Christmas holidays, the children of the North district of Blanc-Mesnil, in Seine-Saint-Denis, made their return to a brand new school. Brand new but the Chevalier de Saint-George school seems to have been there for ages as it resembles the Jules Ferry schools built at the end of the XNUMXth century. Brick and stone facade, cornices, symmetry of the long building on either side of a bell tower: this neoclassical architecture responds to Mayor Thierry Meignen's desire to give his city a new identity.

“Since his arrival at the head of the town in 2014, he has imposed this architectural style on new constructions,” explains his chief of staff Nicolas Rondepierre. It is an approach which appeals to the inhabitants. "

Another school in the city center, a municipal health center and a trilingual campus from kindergarten to high school, currently in the pipeline, will also adopt this classic style borrowed from the XNUMXth century.

The construction of this new 23-class establishment was decided to bring together the neighboring dilapidated primary school, condemned to demolition, and a nursery school located on the other side of the avenue. "We wanted to offer the inhabitants of this poorest district of the city a beautiful school which constitutes a signal", continues Nicolas Rondepierre. The program is generous: the establishment dedicated to the teaching of music has large volumes.

Classic look and innovative construction

Following the design-build competition launched in 2017, four finalist teams are selected. Among them, the consortium made up of the A5A Architects agency and the general timber and industrialized construction company OBM Construction will be the winner. Pierre Durand-Perdriel, managing architect of A5A Architects, appreciates contractors who know what they want and he understands the city's expectations. If the agency has a hundred schools and public buildings to its credit, this is the first time that it has designed a “Jules Ferry” school.

"I was interested in this search for expression", confides the architect who proposes to make the body of the building in brick and stone, traditional and perennial materials, reinforcing the signal effect and marking the identity of the building. 'establishment.

The two schools, nursery school and elementary school, on either side of a central volume housing the library, are treated in a classic way, with sets of moldings and work on the proportions of the windows. But the classic appearance of the facades does not preclude innovation in construction. As the architect's partner company specializes in timber construction, the building will be entirely made of a timber frame. With the exception of the concrete foundations and basement, everything is made of wood: the walls, the floors, the stairs.

A complete cladding system finished in glued coatings

The architect and the company jointly carry out the design studies for the structure. The solution that is needed to realize the facade is the ventilated cladding StoVentec SCM.

The cladding support plate is based on panels of expanded recycled glass beads fixed on a vertical frame in wooden cleats itself fixed to the right of the uprights of the timber frame construction so as to reserve an air gap of 20 mm minimum between the wall and the exterior cladding.

Once installed on the framework, the panels receive a thin underlayment based on hydraulic binder, StoLevell Uni, reinforced with a fiberglass mesh. "The finish is provided by a coating glued in accordance with DTU 52.2", specifies the Technical Assessment of the system.

In the case of the school, it will be natural StoFossil Bavaria stone associated with strips of StoBrick 360 terracotta briquette. Two shades of stone are used: a sand cream tone for the central part of the building topped with the bell tower as well as the entire base to a height of 60 cm, the Nussbraun tone (walnut brown) more sustained for the two wings of the building housing the two schools. Both stone and brick are glued with the adhesive mortar supplied by Sto and then grouted.

Only the main facade of the building is clad in stone and brick. The gables and the rear facade are dressed in the same StoVentec cladding, but in its coated version.

"The wide range of Sto products, all compatible with each other, allowed us to produce this facade without calling on multiple suppliers", emphasizes Pierre Durand-Perdriel. This facilitated supplies in this complicated period of the Covid-19 pandemic.

All convinced by the wooden construction clad in brick and stone

The company chosen for the implementation of this cladding is the company Spebi, specialist in renovation and painting for forty years.

OBM delivers wooden facades coated with exterior insulation and a rain screen to the team of around fifteen companions. Grégory Ferreira, cladding works supervisor at Spebi, is not his first experience installing StoVentec cladding, but it is the first time that he has installed it on a wooden frame.

The building regulations impose additional precautions in terms of fire safety: "Fire flaps must be installed at each level and not every two levels". With the help of OBM technicians, he overcomes this regulatory difficulty. His team applies meticulously the glued coating according to the layout of the architect, not forgetting to seal the brick and stone in two different colors.

The final touch is provided by the custom-designed cornices. Made in StoDéco Profil, light load molding elements based on expanded perlite, they are glued before being painted.

The entire cladding site, with glued and coated coating, i.e. nearly 2.000 m² in total, will be completed in just six months, from May to October 2020.

"The site workers, sometimes skeptical of seeing a classic facade associated with a wooden frame, finally took ownership of the project and often came up with proposals, showing curiosity and pleasure in working together on such a project", concludes architect Pierre Durand-Perdriel.