Mont-de-Marsan education centre comprises wooden boxes hovering over a forest floor

Interiors are white and minimally decorated to make the most of the natural light and emphasise the functionality of the spaces. This   row of timber-clad boxes projecting from an artificial grassy slope in France   contains the   teaching facilities   of   an apprentice training centre by architects Marjan Hessamfar and   Joe Vérons (+ slideshow). «Split into individual blocks, the broken facade promotes a fairly low scaled building,» they added. A horizontal aperture in the side of the grassy bank allows daylight to reach the subterranean spaces, while louvered sections in the timber slats that front   the first floor spaces allow indirect light to enter these rooms. Pebble-shaped openings in the plywood-clad wall of the reception were a final addition, designed to offer «natural» details. The plot is surrounded by oak and pine trees, so the architects chose to partially submerge the structure beneath a turfed ramp that ascends over gaps between the wooden volumes, and used   locally sourced pine to echo the tonality of the trees. The timber used in the project was jointed and glued while still green to ensure its resistance to twisting and warping. This leads into the reception area and then through to a playground at the rear that can be viewed through glass doors on either side. The ground floor accommodates offices and facilities for teaching floristry, catering and furniture making, while the upper storey houses computer rooms and resource spaces, as well as classrooms and dedicated areas   for teaching hairdressing, beauty treatments and sales. «Our intention was to drag the building under a green coat to encourage a perfect fusion between the construction and the nature,» the architects told Dezeen. The largest of the wooden volumes, located at the centre of the building, cantilevers over an entrance path.