enormestudio with the students from Lycee Français de Madrid

The Spanish architects from enormestudio worked in a self-building workshop with some 16-18-year-old students from Lycée Français de Madrid so the students could make more of the school's outdoor areas. Generating the urban furniture project called “Superbanco”.


Spacemaking and self-building at high school. A dream for many designers, but at the French high school in Madrid, it has become a reality thanks to a workshop by the architects from enormestudio together with the French landscape designers from Atelier Roberta, Professor Christophe Dhoyen and a group of 16-18-year-old students from different classes. As part of a broader initiative to redevelop the outside spaces of the school, “Ton Lycée”, with enormerstudio as local partners decided to go with a participatory approach by actively involving the end users.
The workshop was structured in four stages, the first one was to study the school's outdoor spaces, their actual use and what the students wanted. The students wanted more opportunities to relax and hang out with their friends and in the second stage, it was decided to build a usable structure for this precise purpose. 
So they designed urban furniture - “Superbanco” - built using ten different pieces of furniture all based on the same building principle, so they could be easily assembled in new configurations. Once the graphic design was selected, the students and enormestudio arrived at the final stage, namely building and decorating the construction, based on the principles of self-building.
A really positive experience for both the students from Lycée Français de Madrid and for the architects from enormestudio. “We were really struck by how attentively the students observed their school. Maybe it depends on their age but they are very good at combining elements without setting up barriers and at the same time noticing all the details. They showed us lots of new ways to reflect together on the workings of their high school.”
So, all in all, going to school is a good thing, also for the architects who were inspired here by the people who experience the school spaces every day.

Christiane Bürklein

Project: enormestudio with the “Ton Lycée” workshop with Professor Christopher Dhoyen and the students
Landscaping: Atelier Roberta
Location: Madrid
Year: 2017
Images courtesy of enormestudio
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