WAREMA supplies outdoor blinds to elementary school in Nantes (France)

New construction of Alice Milliat elementary school, Nantes

Due to the increasing number of schoolchildren, the municipality of Nantes (France) quickly needed a new building for an elementary school. When building the Ecole Alice Milliat, the municipality opted for a prefabricated wood construction and organic and recycled building materials. Shading took an important place and was realized with WAREMA exterior blinds. To also ensure emergency exit through the facade, the exterior blinds of the emergency exit windows were equipped with WAREMA SecuKit.

The new classrooms were to be built on a narrow lot in the south of town, on a former parking lot. The site is surrounded by residential buildings and trees protected as monuments. On the elongated 4,900-square-meter site, architectural firm forma6 designed a three-story, staggered building with generous outdoor spaces. Small buildings surrounding the main building provide space for special uses or technical equipment. At 2,315 square meters, the compact school building now accommodates three kindergarten classes and five elementary school classes for a total of 230 children. For the city of Nantes, the Ecole Alice Milliat is a textbook example of the school of tomorrow.

Bio-based and demountable building materials

The wood-element structures with their prefabricated wall and ceiling elements allowed for a quickly feasible construction production, guaranteeing short construction times and reducing site noise. The structure consists of mixed metal and wood construction with prefabricated wood window facades capable of supporting independent cladding. The walls, ceiling elements and stairs made of cross-layer timber (CLT) were prefabricated and assembled on site. Wood fiber boards and insulation boards based on recycled cotton provide good energy and acoustic insulation.

Intelligent shading promotes learning success

A motivational learning environment needs adequate glare-free daylight and effective heat protection to ensure students' ability to concentrate and be motivated.

In the Ecole Alice Milliat, the clients therefore chose exterior blinds from WAREMA. Basic blinds were installed on 60 windows concealed in the wooden window frames. The slats guided on rails provide effective protection against heat and glare while optimizing the use of daylight. In order not to impede the disassembly of the building structure by complicated wiring, the exterior blinds are controlled via WAREMA's WMS wireless system. The intelligent WMS sensors register the brightness and weather conditions, thus enabling automatic operation of the exterior blinds. There is also the possibility to operate the outdoor blinds manually via a WMS wall transmitter.

Another important requirement was that the windows at the emergency exits could also be darkened without blocking the escape route. The solution: WAREMA exterior blinds with SecuKit. With this inexpensive safety device, the exterior blinds can be raised manually very easily. The end rail is locked laterally in the guide rails at a predetermined height. In the event of a power failure or fire, escape routes through the windows must be quickly and freely passable. In addition, the emergency exits so equipped are marked with red stickers on the window. That and the end rails of the exterior blinds in traffic red (RAL 3020) make the escape routes quickly and clearly recognizable, just when every second counts.