Ecole des Soeurs de la Charité

Tripoli, Lebanon

The Sisters of Charity School for girls is located in the north of the country near Lebanon's second largest city, Tripoli. At the time, Écochard was in charge of several projects in the country. He undertook this assignment at the beginning of the 1960s in collaboration with the Lebanese architect, Amine Bezri.

This project includes an extensive program consisting of two schools, one free and one fee-paying, each with several classrooms and various sports facilities, as well as a church.

The design of the plan revolves around worship, teaching, the boarding school, general services, sport and the community. This approach is realized by an organisation that places at the center, between the orphanage and the fee-paying school, the core of the project, which is composed of the community, the refectory, the chapel and the sports field.

Characteristic of the ensemble on this hilly is an urban façade dominated by the chapel. The topography molds a program that begins with the free school including nursery, orphanage and primary school, followed by the technical school, refectory and the community functions and, finally, a third group housing the fee-paying boarding school composed of primary, secondary and kindergarten classes. These buildings find themselves, through the overlaps of their heights, interacting with the contours of the land. This aspect is reinforced by a façade treatment that accentuates the horizontal. The chapel is detached from the ensemble by its height and by blind walls unlike the rest of the project elements.