Brick becomes both an aesthetic language and thermal strategy in a sensitive retrofit: this Parisian 1980’s school received a bright white terracotta cladding within a colourful scheme.
What used to be a modest school campus with a weathered white façade now shines in brilliant white with a striking colour pattern. The school building, dating from the 1980s, required more than a cosmetic change, it needed a comprehensive renovation.
Studio Hybride Architectes transformed the La Lanterne School in Évry-Courcouronnes using brick materials, solving functional challenges while simultaneously redefining its architectural identity. At the heart of the intervention lies terracotta in an unusual shape – restructuring perception, rhythm, and insulation.
The original building was unimpressive: a fragmented façade with irregular openings and inconsistent proportions. The architects decided not to conceal this complexity but to highlight it with extraordinary terracotta elements. They chose Altivo cladding in 30 cm width to create a playful vertical sequence of matte white and glazed colours.
This playful approach shapes the project’s new identity: the primary façade colour – Tampa White Pearl in a matte finish – forms a calm base, while glazed ceramic inserts in Blue enamel, Red 03, Red 05 and Yellow 03 add vibrant accents. This interplay between matte terracotta and enamelled brick tiles produces depth and variety. Light behaves differently across surfaces: while matte modules absorb and scatter the light, glazed tiles reflect it and give it vibrancy.
The rear wing contains the main living spaces. Since the plot slopes towards the garden, the architects could hide a full storey in the slope, accessible from the backside of the house. “We ensured the house appears smaller than it actually is”, the architects explain. Unlike wide bungalows that have reshaped the Czech countryside since the 1990s, this house respects traditional proportions.
Beyond just the aesthetics, brick directly contributes to improving the environmental aspects. Terracotta’s durability and its compatibility with ventilated façade systems enabled improved thermal performance without costly structural intervention. For assembly, a profile is attached to the supporting structure, to which the shingles are fixed with clamps.
Depending on the structural stability of the existing building, the shingles are available in two different weight classes. Its replaceable shingle logic allows long-term resilience: Already during construction, damaged elements were easily replaced individually allowing for maximum flexibility in maintenance.
The project’s material precision was achieved through iterative sampling with Terreal. From small prototypes to full-format shingles, testing enabled the calibration of thickness, weight, structural compatibility and chromatic balance. This process underlines the increasing importance of a dialogue between manufacturer and architect in façade innovation. Completed in 2025, the project demonstrates how terracotta can move beyond tradition into a contemporary role.
At La Lanterne School, brick was used to reorganize perception, strengthen the spirit of learning, and improve student participation. Through the intelligent use of material, an aging school has gained both a rejuvenated coherence and an updated character.
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