Sports centre Gilles Boutantin, Cormeilles-en-Parisis (FR)
New building
Client: Ville de Cormeilles-en-Parisis
Location: F-95240 Cormeilles en Parisis, Rue de Saint-Germain
Architecture: Dietrich Untertrifaller
Competition: 2019, 1. prize
Construction: 2021 – 2023
Area: 4,414 m²
Programme: Sports centre with two sports fields and adjoining rooms as well as special sports halls (judo, soccer, fistball, strength training)
Photos: Aldo Amoretti
Team
Laure Finck (Project management), Clement Josse (Team management), Iana Vicq (Project management)
Text: Gerlinde Jüttner
Partners
Statics: Bollinger Grohmann, Paris
Building services: ALTO Ingénierie, Paris
Costs: VPEAS, Paris
Dense programme under a dynamic shell
In small towns like Cormeilles-en-Parisis, 17 km north-east of Paris, club sport plays an important role in social life. The new sports centre offers local teams, recreational athletes and schoolchildren optimal training and competition conditions. The dense programme includes a competition hall, multi-purpose hall, dojo and fistball room. Open and protective at the same time, the uniform and dynamic shell harmonises urban and human scale.
With its flowing silhouette, the sports centre makes a striking statement at the entrance to the town, and yet blends unobtrusively into the loosely built-up residential area. Thanks to the lowered playing field, we were able to keep the building height moderate. Cleverly placed kinks modulate the length of the building, and a simple twist turns the ribbon-shaped roof into an attractive canopy that extends protectively over the entrance and forecourt.
Aluminium, wood and lots of glass
The sports hall is a timber construction with a two-storey reinforced concrete core. The building envelope made of anodised aluminium contributes to the integration into the surroundings, as does the high level of transparency, which allows views into the interior and out into the environment. The roof is also clad in aluminium and thus becomes a fifth façade visible from afar.
The wooden panelling on the ceilings and walls and the daylight that streams in through the floor-to-ceiling glazing give the rooms a warm and friendly atmosphere.
A packed two-story program
Sophisticated spatial references arrange the dense program clearly on two levels. The generously glazed reception hall connects the competition hall to the south, the multi-purpose hall to the north, the dojo and the fistball room to the west.
The "meeting zone" in the reception area - a space for informal discussions and socialising - offers a panoramic view of the competition hall below and leads spectators directly to the stands. In the basement, you will find a gym open to the competition hall as well as changing rooms, storage and technical rooms.
