'Imagining the Schools of Tomorrow, Together'

Lab-École was founded in 2017 by chef Ricardo Larrivée, athlete Pierre Lavoie, and architect Pierre Thibault. For its first two years, the non-profit developed guidelines for school designs based on intensive research and consultations with teachers, administrators, and other key players. Those guidelines informed "Imagining the Schools of Tomorrow, Together," the first school building design competition held in Quebec in half a century. Broadly, the non-profit strives to create schools that "will be true living environments that are caring, open to nature, and their community."

More than 160 proposals were submitted for five schools that will be built in the coming years; the first Lab-École schools are aiming to open their doors for the fall 2022 semester. The five winning architects/teams:

• Gatineau Lab-École by DMA Architectes
• Maskinongé Lab-École by Paquet-Taillefer + Leclerc Architectes
• Rimouski Lab-École by L’ŒUF + Lapointe Magne & Associés
• Saguenay Lab-École by Étienne Bernier Architecture (EBA) + APPAREIL Architecture + BGLA
• Shefford Lab-École by Pelletier de Fontenay + Leclerc Architectes

In addition to the five schools listed above, Québec City Lab-École is being designed by the Lab-École team, bringing the total number of new schools to six. Images of those half-dozen proposals are below; they and other submissions can be found on the Lab-École website.