This Quebec School Embraces The Cottagecore Aesthetic

2024 Best of Year Winner for Small Early Education

Impersonal-looking buildings, cookie-cutter classrooms, long corridors, fluorescent fixtures—these were the hallmarks of elementary schools built in the province of Quebec. So, Lab-École, a nonprofit research firm, was formed to move educational environments in less institutional, more welcoming directions. One result: the 37,000-square-foot École de l’Étincelle, or Spark School, in Saguenay, Canada, by Appareil Architecture, Agence Spatiale, and BGLA Architecture, which takes cues from the natural world and homey cottage architecture. The complex, its interconnected structures clustered around a schoolyard, is made almost entirely of wood, from the facades and pitched roofs to the cubby areas where the young students stow their coats and mittens. Large windows let in natural light. A central open area fitted with multipurpose bleachers encourages interaction and keeps sight lines clear, helping make spaces easy to navigate. There’s even a farm-to-table aspect to the progressive curriculum: Children grow vegetables in community gardens, then turn their harvest into healthy food in the school’s culinary lab equipped with a restaurant-scale kitchen.