In the hall of the Bois-Perrier nursery school, at Rosny-sous-Bois, this masonry heater unrolls a spiral of terracotta stove tiles over a lime-rendered masonry body. It is our sixth public project in a school or nursery school — still a very rare commission for a masonry heater.
The brief: heat a shared space used by young children. The answer: a glazed firebox protected by a glass guard rail, a bench niche in terracotta tiles where the children come to sit in the radiant heat, and surfaces without a sharp edge, entirely built in masonry.
In 2026, this heater won both categories of the AFPMA photo competition: ‘best (unusual) photo’ and ‘most beautiful heater’.
As in the town’s other schools, the heater is not the main heating: the building is connected to the district heating network and far too large to be heated by a wood-burning unit. The heater provides supplementary heat — and a source of warmth that depends on neither the network nor electricity.
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