Delivered in 2022 by Compagnie architecture, the Frida Kahlo school complex for the city of Bruges is inspired by a symbolic and poetic object: the cabin, the first shelter that children build for themselves. Five large houses, separated by outdoor and interstitial spaces, are organised around a central playground planted with trees, and linked by footbridges and walkways. The project encourages contact with the outdoors, with classrooms facing both directions and extended by a terrace or a garden, outdoor walkways and numerous planted areas. Awarded the E4C21 label, the school group is strongly committed to the environment, with its bioclimatic design, the use of bio-sourced materials (the wooden structure) and the implementation of natural ventilation and climatic wells.
Produced from January 2020 onwards, the 1:50 scale model of the project was much more than a design tool: it also accompanied the entire building construction process and was used to present the project to local councillors, technicians, contractors, users and inhabitants of the neighbourhood. On site, it was the starting point for meetings and associated events: circus shows, conferences, visits, etc. Since the building was completed, the model has lived in one of the school group's classrooms.
For Nouvelle Saisons, self-portraits of a territory, we proposed reinventing it by imagining the future development of the school complex based on the reversibility of uses that had been envisaged during the studies. In this way, the exhibition became an opportunity to put the project to the test: to experiment possible changes of use directly on the model, by imagining a partial renovation of the school in 2052, 30 years after the delivery of the project.
What climatic and demographic changes would guide this transformation? What educational and demographic changes would govern the choice of the new program? We started from the premise that fewer children would be taught in the great outdoors, and that the largely ageing population would need to be generously accommodated in suitable, inclusive structures. This raises the following questions: how can we encourage intergenerational relations? How can public facilities evolve to accommodate other uses and other audiences?
In May and June 2025, we moved our practice of architectural permanence2 within the exhibition itself, to transform the model. At the end of these two months of work, House 3 was converted into a residence for senior citizens, with a two-storey extension to accommodate apartments and communal spaces, and adapted access in the form of new walkways running along the facades to access the bedrooms. House 4 houses a mobility area for the elderly. The modified model continues the bioclimatic design of the project and incorporates the consequences of global warming on biodiversity, with a plant palette appropriate to the North African climate that could well be that of Bruges in thirty years' time.
While they were building the new extension and external fittings, the architects in “permanence” organised a workshop with a group of pupils from the Frida Kahlo school group to hear their views on the place, and met visitors to the exhibition daily: schoolchildren, residents and tourists. The staff work to the rhythm of the museum: there are more visitors on the first Sunday of the month (free admission) or on the evening of a conference, and the floor shakes to the sound of the sound check for a concert in the CAPC Art Museum... We are forging links with the arc en rêve team, meeting other architectural offices exhibiting in the space, perfecting our English to talk to groups of tourists... Visitors are curious to learn more, to discover the project. Various themes run through the discussions: what kind of school would you have liked to have had? How can we build sustainably? How can a building be adapted rather than destroyed? Some secondary school pupils showed us the models they had made with their art teacher. Whether in a meeting room, on a building site or in an exhibition space, the model always exerts its power of attraction. It breaks the ice, invites dialogue. After Bordeaux, the model of the Frida Kahlo school group continues its journey, this time to Paris, where it joins another exhibition, L’École idéale (The Ideal School), organised by the Pavillon de l'Arsenal
Thomas Nakajima and Jean Benayoun-Bost, along with Cloé Andron and Chloé Bodart, took it in turns at arc en rêve to work on the model.
1 E+C- label certifies a building's energy performance and its level of greenhouse gas emissions. E4C2 represents the highest level of certification.
2 Developed by Patrick Bouchain and the Construire agency, an “architectural permanence” consists of “living” on a building site or the site of a study. This on-site presence can take the form of workshops with the client, cultural events or regular visits to the site by the public.