In the increasingly urbanized yet still green landscape of Geneva’s Mervelet district, a new school will be established on a charming, tree-covered plot. Here, the interplay of light and shadow is continuous. The sun repeatedly sneaks between the 19th-century villas, only to be overpowered by the sprawling canopies of old trees. The southern part of the plot, once an orchard and now home to a new building, enjoys the most freedom for the warm light.

However, the new building does not yield to the intrusive rays. Like trees spreading their branches, it extends around its facades with walkways, stairs, terraces, and deep loggias. These features not only provide a sheltered school courtyard but also protect the facades and interiors from overheating, despite the windows being equipped with external sunshades.

The name Oasis is well-deserved. It is indeed an oasis of shade on hot summer days and an oasis of warmth when the sun slips into the balconies during colder times, making the outdoor recreational spaces pleasant and bright. The large classroom windows absorb every warm ray like a sponge. As in any oasis, there is also a spring – a spring of knowledge.

On the limited area defined by the building lines, Oasis uses every possible space to fit a precise functional scheme into an equally disciplined form. Thus, the building takes the most efficient cuboid shape in terms of economy, energy, and organization. The main entrance, centrally located on the facade along Avenue de Riant-Parc, is prominent and visible within the neighborhood. A small urban square was created here, symmetrically planted with Japanese cherry trees, recalling the old orchard but primarily for their beautiful scent when they bloom in spring with delicate pink flowers.

The remaining part of the area is enclosed and provides a safe oasis for children’s outdoor games and activities. As extracurricular activities will take place in the historic villas, and these will be accessible to district residents, additional entrances to the old garden have been planned: from the southwest and east (via servitude). The green area, dominated by two huge cedars, is closely linked to the 19th-century buildings and forms numerous synergies with the new building. From each level of the surrounding balconies, one can directly access the school park by running down the external stairs. The multifunctional cafeteria on the ground floor – the heart of daily school life – opens onto the garden through covered terraces, which will be bustling with life on summer days. Between the Joli-Mont villa and the newly designed building, a symmetrically positioned playground planted with crab apple trees is planned. A system of simple paths, arranged axially to the villa, emphasizes the urban connection between the old and the new. Completing this dialogue is the spacious préau, whose roof playfully rises towards the villa, waving to it from between the heavy cedar branches. In front of the Riant-Parc villa, a sunny garden area has been allocated for a circular playground, with a pear tree planted in the center. In a few years, its fruits will be a sweet treat for the students and others enjoying the garden. These won’t be the only fruits to ripen in the school orchard. Several apricots and plums have been planted in the sunny southeastern corner of the Riant-Parc plot. Additionally, the garden includes several beds for educational purposes, and almost every sunlit green fragment is filled with fragrant herbs.

The building’s logistics center is the main hall located in the southern part of the building. Here, the main open staircase connecting all levels and an elevator are located. From the ground floor, the cafeteria, essentially a multifunctional space divisible into three independent parts, and the rhythm room, which will also function outside school hours, are directly accessible. This level is serviced by a block of toilets and a small cloakroom for outer garments in a niche by the rhythm room. Additional coat racks are provided along the wall leading to the cafeteria.

The central hall signals all important spaces in the building: the gymnasium through a vertical window directly opposite the stairs leading to level -1, the cafeteria glazing, and the opening above the stairs, revealing perspectives of the next levels. The building’s largest volume – the sports hall – is partially underground but with access to daylight. This solution allowed for reducing the building’s height and enabled the design of classrooms for the youngest students on the first floor, which has the shortest, almost direct access to the school garden. This level also includes a salle de jeux with outdoor recreational spaces to the west and south. According to the client’s guidelines, both the salle de jeux and the atelier d’arte visuel can be used for extracurricular activities, hence a mobile partition separating the public space from that reserved solely for school activities is planned on this level.

The subsequent school floors, intended for older children, follow the same functional and communication scheme. The modular classrooms are distributed along the facade, with a spacious inner circulation area that also serves as a cloakroom. Each classroom has a designated number of wall niches for locker modules with hooks, contributing to the interior architecture. Above the lockers, there is space for displaying students’ work, and blackboard-magnetic paint panels are provided next to the classroom entrances, which may seem a bit old-fashioned today but are quite charming. The corridors are illuminated with direct light through a small inner patio and indirect light through glazed staircases and access to the southern, spacious terraces serving as preau. The external garden is accessible via external stairs or through the internal staircase in the northern part of the building.

In the historic villas, where architectural interventions are minimized, only spaces for extracurricular activities are housed. Their independence is both an advantage and a challenge. Still, thanks to the connection through the internal garden, orchard, vegetable garden, and old trees, they will undoubtedly become an important part of school life. Their potential, which can be explored with students, lies in the stories they can tell, be it about architecture or 19th-century construction technologies.

This contrasts with the new building, which adheres to a strict construction discipline, with spaces reflecting this principle. The underground part and the ground floor, along with its ceiling, are designed with a reinforced concrete structure. This supports the large spans required by the building’s largest spaces, such as the sports hall and the cafeteria. Additionally, along with the elevator cores and staircases running through all levels, it guarantees the stability of the entire structure. This structure serves as a base (socle) for the wooden construction, which arrives at the site fully prefabricated. The classroom modules on the east and west facades can be transported as ready-made boxes and assembled on-site like building blocks. One typical classroom consists of three transport modules. This spatial solution is flexible for potential future layout changes. The remaining wooden walls and ceilings, completing various functions, are also prefabricated but assembled separately. Consequently, windows in the facade, internal walls with cloakrooms, or classroom entrances follow the module discipline and are mostly prefabricated with the main construction module. The entire building is topped with a flat roof in a light construction of trapezoidal sheet metal covered with extensive greenery to prevent overheating and equipped with photovoltaic panels.