Sport Centre Hector Berlioz
Vincennes, France - 2013

The challenge was to change the old indoor swimming pool from the 60th to a modern multi-sport facility with shared use for the denizen of Vincennes and pupils of the high school next door.
The solution consists in creating a real “showcase” for sportive activities by designing a glass base on topped by a copper cladded volume.
The copper skin adds depth and gives the building a lighter and more elegant look. As time goes by, its colour changing into green, the building will assimilate the “language” of the planted wall shared on the west, also present through the green roof of the complex.
A solution had to be found in order to “announce” the equipment from the very extremity of the pathway where the entry is situated, as well as to highlight its functional diversity in the middle of the surrounding buildings. The centres visibility is strengthened through the design of the pathway leading to its entry. A red coating with white lines let one think of a running race track and invite to discover the glazed façade of the entrance telling the inhabitants of Vincennes “Let’s be sport”.
The glazed ground floor base illuminates at night creating an effect of transparencies that make the copper volume seem to float on top.