Sports Center Gilles Boutantin, Cormeilles-en-Parisis (FR)

Much like sports itself, sports facilities are always important sites of identification. Particularly in smaller towns like Cormeilles-en-Parisis, 17 km northeast of Paris, club sport plays a vital role in social life. With its new sports centre, the municipality of Cormeilles offers local teams, amateur athletes and schools optimal training and competition conditions.

Our design of the silhouette sets a striking mark at the village entrance, but nevertheless blends harmoniously into the loosely built residential area. The lowered playing field enabled us to keep the building height moderate. Well set bends modulate the length of the building, and a simple twist turns the roof band into an attractive canopy that stretches protectively over the entrance and forecourt. Clever spatial references clearly arrange the dense program on two levels. The generously glazed entrance hall connects the competition hall in the south, the multi-purpose hall in the north, the dojo and the fistball room in the west.

The sports hall is planned as a wooden construction with a two-story reinforced concrete core. The building shell made of anodized aluminium contributes to its integration into the surrounding, as does the high transparency, which allows inside and outside views. The roof, also clad in aluminium, acts as a fifth façade visible from afar. The wood panelling on the ceilings and walls and the daylight flowing in through the roomhigh glazing lend the spaces a warm and friendly atmosphere.