Archigram

Since 2009, the Seine-Saint-Denis County Council has been backing “la Culture et l’Art au Collège (CAC)”. This project is based to a large extent on the presence in class for several weeks (40h) of an artist or scientist whose mission is to engage the students in a process of research and creation. 

Tutors: Kieu Nguyen, Blandine Roulet, Louise Granger, Myrto Redor/ architects

Project manager: Stéphane Coulaud

Objectives: 
To go beyond the prevalent conception of school buildings and the planning of educational areas. Archigram is the art of entrusting the design of an intermediate school to pupils and teachers. In reference to the group of English utopian architects 'Archigram', the classes were invited to leave received ideas aside and develop new approaches. The project was not just theoretical, because the pupils built a huge model from Lego bricks.

Workshops:
The first task was deconstructing conventional ideas about the design of school buildings, such as those the pupils experience every day. The idea was to free them from the reality and guide them towards an architectural utopia.

Rather than drawing, the pupils developed an image of their ideal school using collages of pictures from newspapers and magazines. They thus drew up plans that could be used to build the final model.

To attain the objective set at the beginning of the project, the tutor introduced Lego bricks two-thirds of the way through the workshops, to give the pupils time to familiarise themselves with this matrix. The playful aspect of the bricks gave them ideas and contributed to the final model.

Outcome:
A Lego brick model was built to the pupils plans in each school. Each class was supplied with 25,000 pieces of Lego to build their ideal school.

Outings (selection):
- Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine
- Cinémathèque – Metropolis exhibition
- Visit to the open-air school at Suresnes

Participating schools: 
- Class (5th) SEGPA at Collège Robespierre, Épinay-sur-Seine
- Class (4th), Collège Lenain-de-Tillemont, Montreuil
- Class (3rd) Professional experience class at Collège Pierre-Curie, Bondy
- Class (3rd), Collège Pierre-Sémard, Drancy

Photo: STÉPHANE COULAUD