The French School is a well-established educational institution preferred by the French living in Turkey, expats who would like their children to receive education in French, and a limited number of Turkish students, thus offering an international and democratic educational environment where different cultures mingle.
Surrounded by a large forest, the school campus is composed of different small buildings that need to be renewed and extended. The first phase was aimed at the renovation of the music and art studios as well as the addition of four more regular classrooms in Building G.
The construction of this block can be considered both as a response to the legal bottlenecks that came in the way of creating the required financial resources and forced the school to provide education in a physical environment that is not compatible with the quality, diversity and universality of what it can offer, and as the beginning of the school’s renewal process.
It is believed that this investment will act as a catalyst for the rapid recovery of the rest of the campus in a short period of time. The sustainable, eco-friendly, recyclable and ecological construction style will find reflection in other buildings and pave the way for a new physical appearance within the school complex.
Due to the special location where the school is settled along the Bosphorus (with construction and urban planning permits for the protection of natural and cultural heritage sites), and the fact that the land is a diplomatic property allocated to the French state, it is a legal obligation for the buildings here to be constructed with light foundations and temporary rather than permanent structures.
Our main constraint here was being able to finish the construction during the summer vacation, which meant less than a 3-month period. Besides the shape of the building, we tried to find the most appropriate structure that could be designed and built in such a short time. With its high availability on the market and fast mounting capacity, we chose the wood structure and the CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) method. The wooden panels were imported and then prepared at the factory (close to the campus) before being mounted on-site.
In order to ensure earthquake resistance and also to respond to physical and legal requirements, reinforced concrete was used only in the raft foundation while intervening to this sloping terrain as little as possible and the retaining walls were built with concrete combined with rock. Reinforcements in the foundation run through the mold that create the enclosure wall. The stone masonry was formed with stones placed in the mold, and later, concrete was injected on top. In this way, after the mold was removed, the concrete between the stones was treated with high-pressure water and bush-hammer, thus making it possible for this composite system to appear almost like a natural stone wall. Since the stones are floating in a free-standing manner within the concrete, without being forced into a certain pattern, a unique image has been achieved. The wall resulting looks like a stone wall but is actually as strong as a concrete wall.
CLT technology was used as a system that acts both as dividing wall and load-bearing wall panels between the classrooms. Moreover, the floors on CLT walls allowed the construction of triangular consoles up to 3 meters in some places without beams.
Later, the façade was not positioned as a point load, but was connected as a frame with cantilevers, and beams which are the load-bearing elements of the roof. The most important structural feature of this building, rather than the use of CLT, is that the column-beam connection is made with screws instead of steel elements, unlike other wooden buildings with similar structural constraints.
The dense presence of trees on site forced us to define a restricted area to be built on the lower floor, which includes the music and art studios with toilet facilities. In order to optimize the area on the first floor, we designed up to 3-meter-long cantilevers to get four large classrooms, as required by the school.
Implanted along the main road of the campus giving access to all buildings, our project has two long facades, each of them showing their own functions, and on the north side is the entrance façade with all open-air circulation leading to each classroom. On the south side are all the large windows that allow getting the maximum of natural light but are protected from the sun by a large canopy descending from the roof.
The South façade is mostly transparent, embracing the forest. In such a way, it managed to create a strong visual link with nature, aiming to raise awareness among kids about their environment.
In order to optimize the energy efficiency of the building, we worked on getting the maximum natural light through the façade as well as the roof on the first floor. We also managed openings on both façades for all rooms to take advantage of cross ventilation, avoiding the use of air-conditioning during hot weather. All circulation is open hence the building doesn’t need to be heated or artificially illuminated all day long.
While making such an environmentally friendly building for this first step in the renovation of the campus, it is aimed to get a remarkable example to be continued step by step on the whole complex.
