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Architects: Rémy Marciano
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Photographs:Philippe Ruault, David Giancatarina, Remy Marciano, Jean-Michel Landecy
Text description provided by the architects. It is the territory which the traffic circles of the shopping district do not have manages to trivialize completely! The place is more complex, it is a superimposing(overlapping) of stories(trouble), savings, identities also … He(it) is in the confluence of three landscapes: there is at first an industrial and trade plain, an economic strength which came to strengthen the agricultural activity nevertheless still present near the ground, There is in the North, with the pond of Berre in the salty sea sprays and in the wild banks, or push shovel mix(involve), tinkered small houses of vacancy, hut of hunter(fighter) and herdsman's house, that of the Camargue. There is finally, by the agricultural plains which weave a landscape in patchwork, the mineral relief of hills more in the South, and the urban area of Châteauneuf, that of Provence.
The project weaves the sons(threads) of a narrative confirming the will to pursue the registration(inscription) of the sports equipment in a local context, and to reveal with this meeting the intrinsic qualities of this territory. The arrangement(development) of the parking lot and the square of entrance(entry) is the opportunity(occasion) to qualify these free spaces, to invent here a public place in accompaniment of the equipment and allow meetings, interbreedings between the world of the sport and this wild nature.
The distribution(casting) of the various programs becomes an opportunity to fit out a pedestrian connection since the city center up to the banks of the pond of Berre. By coming down(by falling), the architecture weaves more narrow relations with the natural identity of the place, stages(stadiums) become meadows protected by hedges(hurdles) of bocage, and buildings(ships) are flatware of textile roofs as safety nets or mosquito nets.
The sporting room in this agricultural territory, is just like a big farm implanted in its fields, a " farm to champions ", opening on the natural landscape of the Camargue, and capturing the identity of the place … Carcass in the broken lines, the concrete skin in wooden imprints, tinkered fences reminding that bulls not far, wait for their ultimate fight. The concrete in " coffering small board " is realized in the style of a craft(home-made) implementation made by assembled boards of recovery(recycling); the building(ship) so seems to have crystallized in the tint of the nearby rocks. A wide fence in random(unpredictable) wink of pine of the North marks the entrance(entry) of " the arena(bullring) " sports. The inside is treated(handled) in values of grey close to some concrete and strengthening the idea of a building(ship) sculptured in the mass.
Openings are limited to centrings the North and the South opening both main rooms and offices(desks) of the administration on the landscapes of hills and pond. The lightings is and the West, too low are limited strengthening the minéralité and the scale(ladder) of side walls. The internal treatments stay in a "agricultural" register, with facings in straw and wooden shavings compressed!
