«Les Pressoirs» secondary school

Lonay, Switzerland

Photo © Jean-Michel Landecy

Schools

Architects: meier + associés architectes

Location: Chemin de la Poste, Lonay, Switzerland
Year: 2004
Client: Commune de Lonay

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The “Les Pressoirs” secondary school sits on a plot of land above the village of Lonay. Here, on a hillside overlooking the lake and the Alps, the motorway and railway trace parallel lines at the foot of the final corrugation of the Jura mountain range. The project is designed as a pure volume in stone, scarified by long horizontal lines of glass that invite the landscape into the building. At its southwest corner, this surface prism is interrupted by a cantilevered canopy over the entrance for students arriving from the main road.

The school is an urban microcosm, with a main pathway that crosses the entire buil-

ding on three levels, corridors that look like indoor streets, spaces to rest and cast one’s gaze outside, and two main entrances that meet each other on a concrete terrace. The plan of the building is characterised by the different classroom orientations, which are chosen in function of the outside view.

The communal areas are designated by vertical wooden strips that line the internal façades in a dialectical relationship with the structure. The concrete is left exposed on the ceilings and structural elements. A large lightwell interacts with the reinforced concrete to create “light pipes”. The lightwell carries daylight into the main stairway and, at the same time accentuates the path of the sun with effects of shadow and light rays.