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Architects: NP2F
- Area: 2900 m²
- Year: 2016
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Photographs:Antoine Espinasseau
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Manufacturers: AG+, Cochery IDF
Text description provided by the architects. The Physical Education Ground of Saint-Paul Gardens meets the new sportive program which stems from the participative budgets vote, and offers a wide range of sports in the heart of Saint-Paul area in the 4th district of Paris.
The French studio NP2F architectes dedicated itself to organize the project in reflecting the place force: its own characteristics (the Philippe August enclosure bordering the field), its aesthetic appearance (a unique site-specific colorimetry), and its long morphology.
The main idea of the project was to develop and characterize the ground, about 3,000 m2, by making it more efficient and functional in terms of optimal use for game and sport.
To do so, the studio NP2F put into place a sport ground (toping) made of yellow, white, and black aggregates overall the Physical Education Ground. Then, the agency made up the sport areas: the existing 100m running track with a basketball court, a volley/tennis court, a football field at 5, and a sport initiation space for young children.
To organize the practices, while leaving the most open spaces to each other, the studio put ball impact guards divided by 2 pitches, and sport furniture on this large ground.
Delimited by an octagonal ball impact guard of 6m high, the sport initiation space for toddlers allows the children to discover sport and to awaken with a climbing hill, balance rods, gymnastic rings, a basket for basketball (170cm high) and 3 punching bags.
Fully derived from their previous works on urban sport spaces, this operation promotes a decompartmentalization of sport spaces for the town and revendicates a strong and vernacular aesthetic for each one, in a particularly constrained location.
The specific furniture required for practicing is combined with a more neutral equipment (concrete bench, metallic arch) which leaves infinite and undefined beforehand opportunities to the sport practitioners.
