Lycee Pilot Innovant International High School, built in 1984, is located in Poitiers, France, about 300 kilometers south of Paris. The school building was one of the first “schools of the future” in the world when it was built. The high school and university building is still one of the most futuristic in terms of design language. The operating culture of the upper secondary school is very student-centered, the activities are project-based and the pedagogy is phenomenon-based. It is very modern even today.

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The construction of the Lycee Pilot Innovant International High School was the first part of the construction of a future city in France north of Poitiers. In the assignment of the architectural competition, the structure of the city of the future was described as a brain, with the high school and university of the future as its center and hypothalamus.

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FLAT. According to the winning proposal from the Architects (AS.Architecture-Studio) competition, the high school of the future is like a spacecraft that has landed on earth, inspiring and helping students to develop in its formal language. The apex of the triangular building indicates the center of the area. The tip is transparent and includes the school canteen. The operation of the school is controlled by a space capsule sliding on the roof on a rail, which acts as a clock that rhythmizes the operation of the school. At the start of the school day, the capsule will slide from the school center towards the city center of the future, according to chief designer Rodo Tiznado, so that at lunchtime it is just at the apex of the triangle to cool the dining time for students and staff. At the end of the school day, the ship has returned to cover the central square. In other words, the school building concretely breathes in the rhythm of the school day.

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The oval-shaped courtyard is meant to be a kind of showcase for the school, from the windows of which the students' outputs and the school's activities can be viewed. The learning spaces around the courtyard are interconnected and, according to architect Rodo Tizlando, form a series of innovative study spaces alongside the more traditional teaching spaces on the outer perimeter of the triangle. Part of this series now houses France’s first Future Classroom Lab.

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The learning spaces around the courtyard are uniquely curved. The floors in these rooms have been carpeted as an acoustic element. Acoustic elements familiar from the industry are placed on the ceilings. The use of these is appropriate for both economic and operational reasons.

A lot of graffiti-like structure has been used on the surfaces of the building to reduce the temptation to draw and blunt. This seems to have worked surprisingly well, as the surfaces are almost like new in a 30-year-old building.