School with a view
St. Lawrence River provides backdrop
METIS BEACH INTERMEDIATE school in small town Métis-sur- Mer, Que., serves approximately 90 English-speaking children from Matanie, Mitis, Matapedia and Rimouski Regional county municipality. Established in 1829 on the south side of the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, the school setting provides spectacular views of the water and nearby wooded hills.
Two architectural firms, CCM2 architectes of Quebec City, Que., and Rimouski, Que.-based Proulx-Savard architects, began an extension project in 2016 that would give the students more breathing room. The existing building was too small for its purpose — the 1st and 2nd grade classrooms were in the basement, the art room was also the cafeteria, and there was no library or gymnasium. According to Mathieu Morel of CCM2, the lead designer architect for this project, “shortly after the start of the construction of the extension, the local school board also decided to completely refresh the actual classrooms in the existing building.”
The extension contains seven new classrooms (four elementary and three secondary), a gymnasium, a fitness centre, a science laboratory, machine tool workshop and two multipurpose rooms in the basement.
However, the site was definitely a challenge. “We wanted to reduce the impact of the building to maintain as much of the school yard as we could,” says Morel. “Therefore, this is the reason why we dug to put the gymnasium at the basement level. By doing so, we were able to add the common room over the gymnasium and give a wonderful view over the house in front of the school, toward the St. Lawrence River.” Almost 25 percent of the outside walls are covered with energy-efficient windows.
The school installed rolls of vinyl flooring in the hallways, classrooms, common room and offices. “Ceramic tile was used for the washroom and sport-friendly rubber flooring for the gymnasium,” explains Morel. “For the countertop and integrated furnishes, solid surface was specified for the washroom and high-pressure laminate was used in other spaces.
“As for the casing of the integrated furnishes and some of the wall and ceiling finishes, we used Russian plywood to give a warm, comforting, environmentally friendly aesthetic.”
The architectural consortium approached the design with the idea that not only the students would use the school but also the community. “The interior courtyard with the stage between the new and the old school is an example of this intention,” says Morel. “We thought a small courtyard could be used for the diploma ceremony or other uses if weather allows. This space is almost a small cocoon — windless but exterior — that provides the possibility of small gathering or a cocktail, let us say at the end of the schoolyear.”
It is still too soon for the teachers to confirm if all those changes have a calming effect on the students, with fewer conflicts. “The first student walked through the doors in October 2018,” says Morel. However, the teachers are said to believe that the new premises already promotes learning.
