Between city center and boulevard, the gymnasiumis part of a global project of urban requalification.

© Milène Servelle

Architects: LINK - Chazalon Glairoux Lafond - architectes associés

Location: Saint-Étienne, France

Area: 2470.0 m2

Project Year: 2011

Photographs: Milène Servelle

Other Participants : EPASE, Dutreuil/Ferret, Decare

© Milène Servelle

From the architect. Between city center and boulevard, the gymnasiumis part of a global project of urban requalification.

Isometric

The program imposes the creation of a void where sports activities (sports field and climbing wall) will take place. This vacuum imposed by the sporting uses draws from the outset the volumetric draft of the project which is summed up with a regular parallelepiped implanted along the boulevard. From this constraint, the project seeks to radiate beyond its own physical limits.
© Milène Servelle

The urban scale then becomes the means of punctuating the main volume and anchoring it in the site and in the city. It is through urban windows that the building directs, locates, and articulates this new urban project in the city. These windows are voluntarily out of scale, and are expressed by point stretches of the main volume. Focusing on existing urban and landsc...