Caroline Thill, towards an ecological approach of Lycée Michel Rodange

In love with the arts from a young age, Caroline Thill, architect partner of Jim Clemes Associates, always knew that once she entered the artistic world, she would never leave it. Meet.

Her talent owes it to her demanding gaze that she naturally focuses on what she sees, as obvious. A budding artist, she undertook an artistic baccalaureate before entering a preparatory school for art schools where she forged her rigor, discipline and methodology necessary for the foundation and development of any project. An apprenticeship allowing him to join the National School of Architecture of Paris. Since then, she no longer doubts. She knows perennially that it is in the sphere of the conception and realization of architectural projects that she will evolve and flourish.

The realization of a project
Inspiring teachers and meetings with experienced professionals including Jim Clemes, will participate in the architect's architectural reflections; so many crossed paths that add to the cultural diversity of her Greek and Luxembourg origins influence Caroline Thill's daily creativity.

She cultivates a curious and open aesthetic orientation. Cradled as much by classicism as by the contemporary, what she likes is using a methodology to blend inspiration into constraint; a functional sculpture. Distinguished by an ideal of order and reason, it seeks a balance of architectural space summed up in its timelessness. "At the time, symbolic places of worship built for and in relation to a place were the basis of the codes that we find today," recalls the architect. Going beyond static phenomena, imposing a certain grandeur, beauty leading to theatrical emotion, such is the ambition of yesterday and today.

The rise of women architects in the post-war years
If he had had to be an architect in a period other than his own, it would undoubtedly have been postwar. A part of history extremely rich intellectually and conducive to the arrival of women in architecture. Caroline is happy to quote Charlotte Perriand, one of the few women to make a name for herself in architecture at the time. With a view to stimulating reflection and architectural creation in the emergency reconstruction of housing and public facilities, "the public authorities gave architects a lot of freedom to develop new concepts after the war. In an approach that is almost scientific for some, and also philosophical, many architects designed daring architectures ". It is in this line that Caroline seeks to combine the audacity and functionality necessary for the durability of a structure.

Towards an ecological approach at Lycée Michel Rodange
The project of his life? "Always the one of the moment" she answers, smiling. And to resume, "in my current case, a fascinating project is the renovation and extension of the LMRL (Lycée Michel Rodange Luxembourg), the high school in which I studied before my studies". In fact, at night, she sometimes dreams of passing her baccalaureate, she confesses, laughing. In perfect synergy with the original Brutalist architecture, it is about revealing the aesthetics and highlighting the original architecture by sublimating its geometry. "We deconstruct a little, we purify, we return to a minimalist spirit using less materials and ensuring the positive impact of these on the health of users and therefore students. We measure the quality of the air, control the origins of materials, their durability and recyclability so that this construction can support students and teachers for the next 50 years ". In short, like Jim Clemes Associates, LMRL adopts a sustainable architecture taking into account the impact of construction in the evolution of our direct and global environment.

Thus, the installation of extensive and intensive green roofs, the creation of an educational garden on the roof, the installation of photovoltaic panels and the reuse of the original structure of the construction (limiting the carbon footprint of the project) offer a global ecological approach making this project an example of adaptation of an architecture of the 70s to contemporary paradigms.

The extension, which houses a semi-underground sports hall preventing its volume from overwhelming existing buildings, and a multipurpose room connected to a new cafeteria adopt contemporary shapes echoing the geometry of the renovated buildings. A project to be discovered soon.