Lycée professionnel Auguste Escoffier

The Auguste Escoffier vocational high school, constructed in the 1980s, trains future culinary professionals. The educational building design and reconfiguration of the dining facility, redefines the space as a restaurant-grade dining environment, moving away from the typology of a conventional school cafeteria. The intervention conceived by the educational architect, enables hospitality students to engage with a professional culinary setting while enhancing acoustic performance and indoor air quality.

Prioritizing efficiency and conviviality, and with a strong focus on acoustic performance, the educational building design establishes a comfortable, socially oriented spatial environment. The enlarged dining hall now accommodates 485 users within 259 m², operating in two and a half service shifts. A light oak timber cladding, installed in an open joint — à claire voix — configuration, defines the dining zone, clarifies the reading of the irregular volume, and elevates the spatial quality to that of a genuine restaurant typology.

A central spatial device, as defined by the educational architect, the light oak banquette seating establishes the ambience and consolidates the space’s identity within a restrained Scandinavian-inspired material and design language. Painted wall surfaces and light-toned seamless poured flooring of the educational building design establish a calm, neutral material baseline, articulated by applied graphic culinary iconography that references the gastronomic programme and reinforces the building’s culinary identity. A portrait of the celebrated chef is positioned at the entrance, reinforcing the institution’s historical identity and pedagogical legacy.

Existing ceiling panels are retained, while a new plenum void is introduced, providing a cost-effective and passive enhancement of the pre-existing acoustic performance. Within the educational building design, vertical acoustic treatment is provided through wall-mounted absorbent panels, including at the dishwashing exit zone, to enhance overall sound absorption. A new rooftop plant room is constructed to meet upgraded air-handling requirements for the dining facility, with forms and finishes aligned with existing rooftop structures to ensure visual continuity.