Infant ark: this creche on the edge of L'Isle de'Abeau uses nautical imagery and robust materials to enliven both its surroundings and the lives of its small users

Architectural Review, The, Sept, 1997 by Charlotte Ellis

The hilltop town of L'Isle d'Abeau, 30 kilometres south-east of central Lyons, is the most privileged of the older settlements encompassed by the New Town which has been developed since the 1970s on either side of a 15-kilometre stretch of the motorway to Chambery and the Alps. The picturesque skyline of the old town has been retained as a focal point and the modestly scaled local centre, where the EPIDA (new town development agency) has its offices, has been organised round a central park.

Jean-Philippe Charon & Thierry Rampilion, who set up their architectural partnership in Grenoble in 1990, were invited by the EPIDA to submit designs for a new creche; their project was accepted in 1992 and the completed building, which has a net floor area of 720sq m, was handed over two years later. (An infant and primary school now under construction to their designs elsewhere in the New Town is due to be completed next spring.)

Located in a swathe of grassland, the building adopts the imagery of a grounded ship, reached by an access route leading to a raised viewing platform in the form of a prow. The two main components of the buildings (creche and day nursery) are treated as separate entities, while some shared accommodation - an equipment store, cloakrooms, a shower and so on - is contained in the volume beneath the viewing platform.

Laid out on a rectangular plan on one side of the access way is the creche familiale, catering for children who are usually cared for off the premises. On the other side, the much target creche communale, or day nursery, for children who attend every weekday, is organised round an entrance hall which divides accommodation for les petits (babies and toddlers) from that for les grands (older children of preschool age).

Externally, the maritime metaphor is pursued by such devices as an undulating triangular roof of pre-patinated zinc supported by a row of masts to suggest a wavy-navy sail, round windows resembling portholes, and concrete walls polished to gleam like steel. By contrast, the garden elevations are clad with softwood boarding and equipped with steel-framed sliding shutters with fixed timber louvres to protect larger areas of glazing from the sun. Through its cheerful functionalism and playful use of metaphor, the building enlivens both its surroundings and the lives of its small users.