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Architects: Auer Weber
- Area: 19000 m²
- Year: 2019
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Photographs:Christoph Gramann, Aldo Amoretti
Text description provided by the architects. Located around 30 km from Paris, the Nautical Stadium is the first completed venue for the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in France. It houses the largest whitewater centre in Europe and will be the venue for rowing, kayak as well as canoe racing and the slalom.
In 2012, the Île-de-France region decided to redesign, replan and add to the existing green and water spaces. This was to create a sports center that would meet the requirements for a rowing and kayaking facility for the 2024 Olympic Games competitions. The planning team led by Auer Weber won the facility's international design competition. The concept convinced the jury because the new infrastructures fitted perfectly into the existing terrain. The building architecture takes up the adjacent landscape structure and continues it as a design element in a plateau, integrating all functional areas.
The answer to this task was a landscape project that fits into the existing green space, reinterprets it and perpetuates it. Water is omnipresent and creates fluid transitions between the individual installations. It structures the overall site and transforms the space into a mosaic of small islands – a "sports archipelago" composed of four different sports centers.
Set in a historic landscape, the 200-hectare Vaires-Torcy water sports park is located on the banks of the Marne River, east of Paris in the Île-de-France region. The large lake, which is its main component, closes it to the west, and to the east, there is a recreation area with a bathing lake and a golf course. To the south, the park is bordered by the Marne River and to the north by a shipping canal that bypasses the weirs and the mill of the historic Meunier chocolate factory. Like an island, the "Île de Vaires" recreation area is located between these two bodies of water.
Architectural and landscape elements equally determine the appearance of the complex: A vibrant plateau spans from north to south, emerging from the flat area on the eastern edge of the lake. As a large, summarising gesture, it integrates all the main functions in one overall shape: competitive sports, accommodation facilities and public water sports facilities. This overarching horizontal band provides a connection for amateur athletes from the main entrance and parking area to the north to the public water sports facilities in the south.
At the same time, it separates the public from the sports facilities: The professional and amateur sports buildings are located beneath the wide, landscaped, and partly balcony-like route, so that athletes can train undisturbed by visitors but at the same time remain visible and tangible to them. It connects the two judges' buildings with the central competition and media center, which is surmounted on the platform by a panorama hall. The various facilities appear very homogeneous due to the reduced choice of materials – exposed concrete and wood. The facades of the buildings arranged beneath the plateau use polycarbonate panels, a material used in boat building.
The whitewater facility east of the plateau is designed as a canyon-like amphitheater. Visitors thus have the best possible view of the competitions and can follow the action close up.
