The new premises for the preschool and primary school were to be built on a former car park, a narrow, elongated plot of land (4,900 square metres) in the south of Nantes. The land is surrounded by residential buildings and protected trees. The architectural firm forma6 planned a three-storey building with a mezzanine floor, extensive outdoor spaces with sheltered and green playgrounds and a volleyball and basketball court.

Across 2,315 square metres, the compact school building now accommodates three preschool classes and five primary school classes with 230 children in total. The ground floor contains the school cafeteria, communal and administrative rooms and a multi-purpose room that can later be made available to the neighbourhood as well. The preschool classes are on the first floor, along with playrooms and group rooms, more administrative rooms and the school library. The classrooms and side rooms for the primary school are on the second floor. The small accompanying buildings are made to resemble the kinds of huts that children love to build. These buildings have special uses or contain technical facilities such as cooling and ventilation units.

For the City of Nantes, the Ecole Alice Milliat is a prime example of the schools of tomorrow. With playful, asphalt-free courtyards with lawns and woodchip floors and versatile outdoor spaces, the school is designed with children in mind and promotes inclusion.

Bio-based and removable building materials
Prefabricated wooden elements, including walls and ceilings, allowed the building to be constructed quickly while reducing noise from the construction site. The structure is a mix of metal and wood with prefabricated wooden-frame facades that can support separate cladding. Douglas fir was used for the structure, while the facade was made from treated and pre-greyed fir wood. The wooden walls and the interior walls, ceiling elements and stairs made from cross-laminated timber (CLT) were prefabricated in the OBM Constructions factory and assembled on site. Fibreboards and insulation panels made from recycled cotton ensure good insulation for both energy and sound. The school building may border the Boulevard de Vendée, a busy and loud thoroughfare, but “you don’t hear any of that in the school rooms”, architect Bertrand Poirier explains, before emphasising the excellent air quality inside the school building.

Intelligent sun shading promotes learning
A motivating learning environment requires plenty of glare-free daylight and effective heat protection to ensure the students can concentrate and are ready to do their best.

In the Ecole Alice Milliat, the clients therefore opted for external venetian blinds from Warema. Basic external venetian blinds were installed on 60 windows and concealed in the wooden-frame facade. The rail-guided slats ensure effective heat protection and glare control while taking full advantage of the daylight. To make sure that complex wiring won’t prevent the structure from being dismantled, the external venetian blinds are controlled via the Warema WMS radio system. The intelligent WMS sensor system registers the brightness and weather, allowing the blinds to be controlled automatically. The blinds can also be operated manually via WMS wall-mounted transmitters.
It was also important to ensure that the shading on the emergency exit windows doesn’t block escape routes. The solution? Warema external venetian blinds with SecuKit. This cost-effective safety feature means that the blinds can easily be pushed up manually. The end rails lock at a predefined height laterally in the guide rails. In the event of a power failure or fire, the window emergency routes are quickly made accessible. Red stickers on the windowpanes show which emergency exits are fitted with this technology. These stickers and the traffic red (RAL 3020) end rails on the external venetian blinds ensure that emergency routes can be identified quickly and clearly when every second counts.

Construction details

• Property: Ecole Alice Milliat
• Location: 72 Rue des Bourdonnières, 44200 Nantes/FR
• Client: City of Nantes
• Purpose: Preschool and primary school
• Architecture: forma6 SCOP d’architecture, Nantes, France
• Certification: HQE Haute Qualité Environnementale
• Implementation: Emys Sodiclair, Nazelles-Négron, France
• Completed: 2024
• Sun shading: WAREMA E 80 A6 S basic external venetian blinds, RAL9006 white aluminium matte
  WAREMA basic external venetian blinds with SecuKit
• WAREMA WMS radio remote control: MS Weather station plus, WMS Weather station eco, WMS wall-mounted transmitter basic, WMS wall-mounted transmitter plus, WMS plug receiver

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