Atelier CLAP: This project is a pretext for us to delve into what truly drives our practice: creating spaces with soul—spaces that tell a story and open up new possibilities, far from standardized solutions.
Our approach is rooted in a sense of total design, shaping living, evolving environments—from the overarching vision down to the smallest detail. It’s a chance to explore freely, go beyond the initial brief, and amplify its impact.
From Fields to a High-Use Campus
Built in the 19th century, the Stanislas Institute was once a religious school set in open fields with sea views. Urbanization, underground parking, and infrastructure growth have reshaped it. Now hosting 2,700+ students, it’s the Côte d’Azur’s largest school, with dense, standardized, grey, and joyless outdoor spaces. The challenge: reimagine a Mediterranean Eden that blends identity, resilience, and modern needs.
Adaptive Schoolyard
To address Mediterranean climate challenges, we design unified, resilient courtyards adapted to users’ needs. Maximizing depaving and enhancing the tree canopy creates shaded, cool, and welcoming areas. The approach is both participatory and educational, shaping a strong campus identity tailored to each age group.
Simple, Effective Tools
Our collaborative process defines clear priorities:
(1) Massive depaving to slow and absorb water
(2) Maximizing shade with low-maintenance trees
(3) Custom, multifunctional furniture
(4) Light-colored surfaces to reduce heat accumulation
Rebuilding Living Soil
Soil is treated as a living resource: preserved, decompacted, aerated, and enriched with organic matter. Maintenance is minimal—leaves decompose naturally, and trees grow freely without pruning.
Constraints as Opportunities
Constraints shaped the design. A dense web of underground networks, compacted soil, high use, and fire access regulations led us to place green areas in utility-free zones—like a negative imprint. Furniture follows this logic to form a coherent whole.
Lexical Journey
Unlike standardized courtyards, our design revives Stanislas Institute’s values. A poetic path from preschool to high school unfolds through key words engraved in the furniture. Words like “feel,” “explore,” “invent” act as inner markers. They evoke, they open a mental space within a silent narrative—a living page where everyone is free to write their own story.
Dream & Play
We move away from catalog furniture in favor of custom, low-cost, buildable elements. The ground becomes a playful canvas. In the preschool yard, shapes and colors echo the sea and the Lérins Islands, grounding the design in the local landscape. This narrative canvas is intentional—it sparks curiosity and invites movement. Wooden structures support spontaneous, imaginative play.
A Path to Wonder & Discovery
Co-designed with teachers, children, students, and staff through a dynamic participatory model, this evolving project fosters educational engagement. Each phase invites new experiences—like workshops on living soil and plants that ignite curiosity.
Natural wood, lush vegetation, warm seating, a stage, podiums, colored surfaces, and engraved words—all speak to the senses. The aim is not just a functional space, but a living place, co-created with its users, where emotions emerge.
What truly interests us is how this project invents a quiet yet powerful everyday poetry—transforming space into a meaningful landscape.
Landscape architecture: Atelier CLAP
Year completed: part 1 : 2023 // part 2 : 2024
Photo credits: Atelier CLAP
