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Architects: Ateliers 2/3/4/, VenhoevenCS
- Area: 20000 m²
- Year: 2024
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Photographs:Salem Mostefaoui, Simon Guesdon
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Manufacturers: Myrtha Pools, Dive Gym, Le Pavé, Mathis, Mtech
Text description provided by the architects. The Aquatics Centre and its pedestrian overpass in Saint-Denis, Paris, designed by VenhoevenCS and Ateliers 2/3/4/ for Heritage, is the only permanent facility built for the 2024 Games. The Aquatics Centre emerges as a curved wooden sculpture from the Grand Paris landscape, combining technical innovations with the highest environmental credentials. With its clever configuration, limited need of materials and energy under an ultra-thin hanging roof, France’s largest urban solar farm, the arena will host 5.000 spectators for water polo, diving and artistic swimming Olympic competitions.
As the only facility built specifically for the first sustainable Games of the modern era, in a city and metropole that placed environmental issues at the heart of its policies, the Aquatics Centre goes beyond environmental regulations and requirements. Sustainability, biodiversity and connectivity are key in all aspects of its nature-inspired design.
As architects, we aimed to create more with less: less volume, less materials, less energy, more connection, more inspiration to exercise, more nature, more flexibility, more beauty. Driven by our ambition to minimize energy use, we aimed to reduce the volume needing heating, resulting in a wooden structure with a curved roof. The sports hall's structure uses a unique system of long-span tensioned wooden beams supporting the hanging roof. This approach reduces the conditioned air volume by 50%, providing both architectural dynamism and a lightweight construction system. Externally, pre-grained Douglas fir lamellas wrap the building, offering acoustic, ventilation, and solar protection, while creating a sheltered reception space.
We also wanted to create a very compact building to preserve space on the plot to support biodiversity and reduce the quantity of building materials. Hence, we introduced innovative, modular and multifunctional basins of variable size, with movable walls and floors, allowing optimal use and accommodating different events. The pool's bottom adjusts in depth to meet diving board height requirements, reducing water use by 25%. Our sustainable design philosophy means that the materials we use are carefully selected in terms of quality, quantity and origin, but above all for their ability to optimize their life cycle. Priority was given to bio-sourced materials. Our motto ‘Use less, use better’ paid off: the Olympic Aquatics Centre was awarded the BiodiverCity Label and the score Exceptional for the “NF HQE sports equipment”.
From the beginning, our desire to consider the programme in its environment incited us to conceive it as a unique entity, with its scenic park and its crossing to the Stade de France, and not as a single object. This very compact proposal creates room for one hundred trees that will be planted to improve the quality of life and air, stimulate biodiversity and create new ecological connections. The multi-sports complex and its surrounding park designed for sports/leisure will be catalysts for social interaction. With its Pedestrian Overpass crossing the A1 towards the Stade de France, the Aquatics Centre unites urban strategy with engaged architecture, ensuring a lasting legacy in the Plaine Saulnier eco-district.
