Internat du lycée de jeunes filles, actuel lycée Marguerite de Navarre
MonumentHidden Treasure
Chef-d'œuvre de l'architecture scolaire d'après-guerre, l'internat Vauvert à Bourges révèle un audacieux mariage de préfabrication moderniste et de décor humaniste, signé Jacques Barge en 1950-1952.
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History
In the heart of Bourges, on rue de Vauvert, stands a building that embodies a rare and little-known piece of twentieth-century French architecture: the boarding school of the Lycée Marguerite de Navarre, built between 1950 and 1952 by the architect Jacques Barge. Far from the austerity one might associate with the buildings of the immediate post-war period, this building is immediately striking for the elegant rigour of its long facade facing the street, where vertical and horizontal, full and empty, smooth surfaces and pitted stone meet with almost musical precision. What makes this building truly unique is its status as a prototype. Jacques Barge was not just building a boarding school; he was experimenting with a model destined to transform national school architecture, by applying for the first time the new hygiene directives issued by the Ministry of Education in January 1949. With its prefabricated reinforced concrete framework, modular grid and comb-shaped floor plan open to the light, each constructional choice was intended as a lesson for a new generation of architects. But the Vauvert boarding school is not just a technical manifesto. Its interior spaces were brought to life by a coherent and ambitious decorative programme, entrusted to the teachers at the École des Arts Appliqués in Bourges. The ceramic medallions by Jean and Jacqueline Lerat, the painting by Henri Malvaux and the sculpture by Marcel Gili transform the corridors and gardens into a veritable open-air museum, inhabited by exemplary female figures and luminous scenes of life. The experience of visiting the museum is twofold: the pleasure of well-thought-out architecture, with its clear perspectives and its composition of pavilions bathed in light, and the pleasure of artistic detail, where each ceramic and each medallion tells the story of an illustrious woman. The rose gardens that dot the grounds add an unexpected softness to this resolutely modern ensemble. Listed as a Historic Monument in 2001, the Vauvert boarding school is still a living school, which gives it a rare authenticity: here, heritage is not frozen in a museum, but continues to play its original role, serving the education of young Berruyers.
Architecture
The Vauvert boarding school adopts a comb-shaped layout, a functional organisation in which a long main building running along the rue de Vauvert serves as the backbone for six perpendicular pavilions that extend southwards from it. This layout, inspired by the principles of modern urban planning, gives each pavilion a double east-west exposure for the dormitories, study rooms and refectories, while the services and toilets are aligned with the less bright north facade. The overall impression is one of serene order and open space, a far cry from the density of nineteenth-century boarding schools. The main façade on rue de Vauvert is the building's architectural showpiece. Long and rhythmic, it plays on alternating surfaces of dressed ashlar and panels of simply piqueted stone, creating subtle effects of relief and texture. The composition, which is reminiscent of a certain classical rigour inherited from the French Renaissance, is enlivened by the skilful interplay of vertical bays and horizontal bands. In this way, Barge affirms its continuity with French architectural tradition while resolutely embracing modern construction. The load-bearing structure is based on a reinforced concrete framework prefabricated in a workshop, with standardised beams laid on a regular grid: a major innovation for a French school at the time. This rational construction system allows for generous spans, wide openings and very bright interior spaces. The decor, integrated from the design stage, harmoniously complements the architecture: ceramic medallions by Jean and Jacqueline Lerat, murals by Henri Malvaux and stone sculpture by Marcel Gili create a coherent whole where applied art meets the rigour of the building.
Related Figures
Jacques Barge — architecte concepteur de l'internat (1950-1952), auteur de l'église Sainte-Odile à ParisJean Lerat — céramiste, professeur à l'École des Arts Appliqués de Bourges, auteur des médaillons en terre cuiteJacqueline Lerat — céramiste, collaboratrice et épouse de Jean Lerat, coauteure des médaillons décoratifsHenri Malvaux — peintre berruyer auteur de la toile figurant des jeunes filles dans un vergerMarcel Gili — sculpteur auteur de L'Éveil (Jeune femme se coiffant), œuvre en pierre dans les roseraiesMarguerite de Navarre — humaniste et écrivaine (1492-1549) dont le lycée porte le nom, symbole de l'éducation féminine
