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View of the high school, Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, Damascus, Syria.

© AKAA / Alhadi Albaridi

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View of the high school, Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, Damascus, Syria.

© AKAA / Alhadi Albaridi

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Main avenue between the cantine and primary school, Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, Damascus, Syria.

© AKAA / Alhadi Albaridi

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Chemistry laboratory, Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, Damascus, Syria.

© AKAA / Alhadi Albaridi

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Solar chimney, Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, Damascus, Syria.

© AKAA / Alhadi Albaridi

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Each building contains 2 classrooms with its own solar chimney, Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, Damascus, Syria.

© AKAA / Alhadi Albaridi

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Entrance of the school, Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, Damascus, Syria.

© AKAA / Alhadi Albaridi

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Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle

Award Cycle: 2011-2013 Cycle

Status: Shortlisted

Country of origin: Syria

Location: Damascus, Syria

Client: French Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Architect: Ateliers Lion Associatés, Dagher Hanna & Partners, Paris, France

Design: 2006

Size: Ground floor area: 4995 m² - Total site area: 10000 m²

Completed: 2008

In designing school facilities in this desert climate, the architects opted for natural ventilation, a decision with crucial implications for the morphology of their solutions. The buildings are typically two-storey patio structures each giving onto a small, lush, and sheltered garden. The garden is the building block, creating the microclimate, feeding cool air into the ventilation system through PVC pipes, made to circulate by means of the updraft created by solar chimneys. The walls are double-block for its thermal properties: solid concrete on the inside and concrete breeze-blocks on the outside, separated by an air pocket. The classrooms are arranged in rows on both sides of major axes, in a pattern of alternating buildings and gardens.


Syria
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