Cultural and Sports Center

Project description

Construction of a cultural and sports community center in Flavin

A single building serving a dual function
This project had to provide, within a small village in Aveyron, on a steeply sloping site, a dual program: a sports facility (multi-sport hall) and a cultural facility (dance studios and a space dedicated to martial arts).

A contemporary fault as a tool for urban reconstruction
This dual program, combined with the site’s location, which separates the town hall below from the village school higher up, led us to design a building embedded in the slope of the land and traversed by an alley. The sports program is on one side, the cultural program on the other, connected on the ground floor beneath the upper part of the alley, thanks to the slope of the site. By linking the town hall to the school through the main public building of the village, the fault becomes meaningful. The building then serves as a tool for urban reconstruction.

A building as a catalyst for the democratization of sport and culture in the community
To balance optimal natural lighting from the northeast with the goal of making the building’s activity enliven this small village, the sports and cultural activity rooms were placed as showcases on the lower forecourt. This orientation provides high-quality natural light without glare and offers a panoramic view of the Aveyron agricultural landscape stretching to the horizon. The lower forecourt takes the form of a welcoming public space, designed as a ochre-colored slab embedded with lighting fixtures and planted areas. On the benches, many children stop for a moment with their parents, watching the athletes, judokas, and dancers in action inside the building.

Staging the distant landscape of Aveyron’s countryside
The challenge was to create a public building with all the presence and stature it implies, while subtly integrating it into a site composed of hills, meadows, and stone bell towers. During competitions in the gymnasium, the audience enters through the upper forecourt and, through the sporting activities, is presented with a breathtaking landscape. From the upper forecourt, the fault pinches the space and frames the bell tower of the church emerging from the historic village below. The ochre concrete sails guide the eye toward this landscape, staged like a painting.

Ochre concrete blocks extruded from the agricultural landscape
In contrast to the immateriality of the glass revealing the landscape, the roughness of the concrete and its earthy red color seem to have been extracted from this agricultural setting. The corten steel plates and square embedded lights in the forecourt respond to the perforation of the concrete walls of the fault. The beams of light projected during the day into the fault through the openings in the concrete sails, and their luminous glow at night, will undoubtedly invite people to be drawn into this somewhat magical alley.