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Lycée Français Charles De Gaulle Damascus, Syria 2013 On Site Review Report 4032.SYR by Wael Samhouri Lycée français Charles de Gaulle Damascus, Syria Architect Ateliers Lion Associés, Dagher, Hanna & Partners Client French Ministry of Foreign Affairs Design 2002 - 2006 Completed 2008 Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle Damascus, Syria I. Introduction The Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in Damascus, a school that houses 900 students from kindergarten up to baccalaureate level, is a garden-like school with classrooms integrated into an intricate system of courtyards and green patios. The main aim of the design was to set a precedent: a design in full respect of the environment that aspires to sustainability. Consequently it set out to eliminate air conditioning and use only natural ventilation, cooling, light/shadows and so economise also on running costs. The result is a project that fully reflects its aims and translates them into a special architectural language of forms with rhythms of alternating spaces, masses, gardens and a dramatic skyline rendered by the distinct vertical elements of the proposed solar chimneys. II. Contextual Information A. Brief historical background This is not an ordinary school, one that is merely expected to perform its educational functions although with a distinguishing characteristic: doing everything in French within an Arab country. Rather, it is a school with a great deal of symbolism and history attached to it. To illustrate this, suffice to say that this school, begun in 2006, was formally inaugurated by the French President himself. On a 2008 hot September Damascene morning, in the presence of world media, President Nicolas Sarkozy and the Syrian Minister of Education attended the formal opening of the school, in the hope of establishing a new phase of Franco-Syrian educational relations. The land upon which the school is built was used previously by the French army during the Mandate for many years before being returned to the Syrian army which, in turn, occupied it until it again became part of the property owned by the French Embassy in Syria. The French school initially started in 1970, at the second level of the already existing French school the Lycée Laique de Damas. Later, it moved to several areas in the city from the 1970s onwards: the Mohajireen, Mezzah and Dummar neighbourhoods. The buildings that housed the school in those years were rented existing buildings that had not been designed as schools in the first place. Moreover, there was no integrated single campus to house primary, secondary and intermediate sections, which were spread out in different locations, depriving the school of having a unified administrative system, a proper image and generous sport areas for student activities. Hence, this new school fulfils the desire for an integrated campus with its own formal image that properly reflects the resumption of the diminished French educational system in Syria. It is a question of prestige. 1 B. Local architectural character, including prevalent forms and materials The school is mainly surrounded by residential blocks in the east and south and a hospital in the north. To the west, it merges smoothly into the topography of one of the Mezzah hills. The local architectural character around these blocks is mixed. Predominantly, it is comprised of typologies of four-floor plain concrete slab buildings. Some of these date back to the late 1950s and early 1960s, but the majority date to the 1970s. This building type can be found in residential areas throughout Damascus and is typical of most residential buildings in urban and suburban areas all over Syria. In the specific case here, it mostly houses blocks for the lower middle class. Nevertheless, there is one block further from the school in which higher quality buildings denoting a “higher” social stratum can also be seen. This group was built in the 1990s with a similar architectural character as those above but the building materials are of better quality: mostly stone cladding that is used to upgrade the appearance of the facades, with some marble sections too. In addition, local shops, which serve the daily needs of the neighbourhood, are usually situated on the ground level of the surrounding buildings facing the street. Before the advent of modernism in Damascus, the Mezzah district buildings were constructed in traditional mud-brick and timber and these traditional buildings prevailed until they were demolished from the 1960s onwards (the last major demolition took place only five years ago). In fact, just over the Lycée Français’s boundary, old free-standing ruins of walls can still be found (see images). C. Climatic conditions It is important to highlight the prevailing climatic conditions because they motivated the main idea behind the design of the school and constituted its point of departure. Damascus has a hot arid climate due to the rain shadow effect of the Anti-Lebanon mountains and the prevailing ocean currents. Summers are dry and hot with less humidity. Winters are mild and comparatively rainy, sometimes with snow. The annual rainfall is around 130 millimetres (5 in), occurring from October to May. However, the weather has changed and water has become ever scarcer during the last 50 years, with rapid urbanisation around the city and its region. Summary: • altitude: 733 m (2,405 ft); • the average temperature in Damascus is 17.6°C (64°F); • the range of average monthly temperatures is 20°C; • the warmest average max/high temperature is 37°C (99°F) in August; • the coolest average min/low temperature is 2°C (36°F) in January; • Damascus receives on average 234 mm (9.2 in) of precipitation annually or 20mm (0.8 in) each month; • on balance there are 45 days annually on which greater than 0.1 mm (0.004 in) of precipitation (rain, sleet, snow or hail) occurs or four days on an average month; • the months with the driest weather are June, July, August and September when on balance 0 mm (0.0 in) of rainfall (precipitation) occurs; 2 • the month with the wettest weather is December when on balance 60 mm (2.4 in) of rain, sleet, hail or snow falls across eight days; • mean relative humidity for an average year is recorded as 50.4% and on a monthly basis it ranges from 36% in June, July to 72% in December and January; • hours of sunshine range between 5.7 hours per day in January and 13.8 hours per day in July; • on balance there are 3,634 sunshine hours annually and approximately 10 sunlight hours for each day (source: http://www.damascus.climatemps.com). D. Immediate surroundings The site of the school is bordered by mixed natural and built surroundings: immediate, neighbouring and distant too, due to the topography of the area as a whole. From an aerial photo, it seems as though the school is located at a short distance downhill from the Syrian president’s palace (the Shaab Palace). However, on visiting the site, one discovers that the palace is far up the mountain and the seeming closeness on the map or aerial photo is rather deceiving. The site still has some of the old trees left in good condition, especially pine, cypress and olive trees that seem to be very well adapted to the climate. The school border from the north and north-east still greatly benefits from the presence of these pine trees that frame the view towards the mountains that have the same kind of vegetation, making a nice visual connection and an echoing continuity. The view in question is one of the rare areas still left unchanged in Damascus, part of the lush green plain (Ghuta) that collides with the rocky hills and canyons of Rabwa. E. Topography Topographically, the site is located on one of the hills of the Mezzah area. It slopes gradually up from south-east to north-west. At the extreme north-western side of the property the slope becomes rather steep; at this end, the architects decided to keep part of the land as a roughly landscaped area using basalt local volcanic stone. It must be pointed out that the whole Mezzah area is higher than the rest of Damascus and it is interesting to note that, historically, the high latitude of the Mezzah area made it a summer resort for Damascenes living in the hotter old city located in the valley below. III. Programme & Functional Requirements A. History of the inception of the project; how the project was initiated The architects tried to address a programme that required the integration of all school sections in one campus, alongside facilities and common amenities. The list of requirements was as follows: • kindergarten • primary school • secondary school • several canteens for all ages and for staff 3 • administration section • function hall/gymnasium (used also as multi-purpose occasionally) • common and sports amenities The solution presented by the architects is an integrative scheme of the list above: a system of courtyards and patios related to the biomatic scheme intrinsic to their core architectural concept and strategy. B. How were the architects and specialists chosen? The project was initiated by the French Foreign Office. The architects were selected to compete via an invited closed competition. After winning the competition, the architects formed a consortium of experts to complete the whole spectrum of issues embodied in the project. C. General programme description and objectives The architects explained that from nursery school to the graduation level of high school, pupils must be able to develop their own characteristics while acquiring a common identity based on an easy-to- use layout. Integral to this are communal area activities. An area of communal services is located at the bottom of the site alongside the street.
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