Collège Porte du Médoc

A first for the Department

In Parempuyre, near Bordeaux, the Gironde Departmental Council has decided to completely refurbish the secondary school built in 1982. After an extension 20 years ago, the building had become outdated in terms of educational standards and too dilapidated to accommodate its 700 pupils. As part of the Plan Collèges and benefiting from State aid through the Green Fund and DSID*, the brief set ambitious objectives.

In addition to functional buildings (8,900 m²) and new sports facilities (2,670 m²) open to the wider public, the project aimed to anticipate the RE2020 requirements for energy and environmental excellence. A circular economy approach was requested – a first for the Department.

The proposal from the consortium led by Bouygues Bâtiment Centre Sud-Ouest delivered optimised solutions. “Beyond providing a building that met our expectations, the consortium took advantage of available land to propose a temporary modular construction to host pupils during the works, covering an entire school year,” explains Mathieu Carayol, project manager at the Department’s Engineering and School Construction Service. “The consortium also stood out for its circular economy measures.”

Key challenges: environmental excellence and long-term durability

To host “several generations of pupils with the same level of quality”, the building designed by TLR Architecture addresses two major challenges.

From an urban perspective, it acts as a landmark, signalling the public nature of the school while blending into its surrounding residential environment and connecting harmoniously with it. Technically, it ensures thermal comfort in both winter and summer through optimal orientation, natural ventilation, and the use of renewable energy sources (geothermal and photovoltaic electricity).

The project pushes environmental performance even further, targeting E3C2 classification, Level 3 Bâtiment Biosourcé certification, and exceptional indoor air quality (<800 ppm CO₂ concentration). In this context, applying circular economy principles to as many materials and products as possible was a real challenge.

For example, the old aluminium windows were removed by Bouygues Bâtiment Centre Sud-Ouest and sent for recycling to WICONA, via the facilities of its parent company Hydro Building Systems. In return, WICONA supplied Bouygues’ subcontractor GF3M with profiles for 400 new windows and doors made from Hydro CIRCAL® 75R low-carbon recycled aluminium.

WICONA solutions: a 100% circular offer, from window to window

400 new windows and doors in low-carbon recycled aluminium

To maximise natural light in the interior spaces, the openings are generously sized, with a 1.20-metre width grid and heights of around 2 metres on solid sills of 80–90 cm. They are complemented by various solar protection systems depending on the façade orientation (canopies, awnings, blinds, adjustable louvres…).

The WICLINE 65 fixed and opening frames are combined with WICSLIDE 75 sliding doors and WICSTYLE 65 entrance doors. Beyond their aesthetic appeal and technical performance, the real strength of these ranges lies in their exceptional environmental quality: they have the lowest carbon footprint on the market (1.9 kg CO₂ per kg of aluminium), thanks to their composition with Hydro CIRCAL® 75R aluminium, which contains at least 75% post-consumer recycled aluminium (mainly from end-of-life aluminium joinery).

Over 10 tonnes of recycled aluminium

The Parempuyre school is one of the first projects in France to benefit from the circular economy scheme developed by WICONA/Hydro Building Systems. “We collected more than 10 tonnes of aluminium directly from the site and sent it to a sorting facility working with our foundry in Spain. This recovered aluminium re-entered our production cycle – the old window became a new window once again.”