Sports complex in France. Wooden gyms at the service of Schools and Neighbourhoods

Crystal clear shades have been used to create a peaceful calm atmosphere to ensure that the facilities remain discreet. The floor is beige, the panels are made of light wood and the position of the lights and radiators in a carefully designed layout

The only colour is the red gymnastic apparatus that creates a sharp contrast with the general monochromatic tone

The building houses two gyms and support services on a total area of 2.500 square metres with internal ceiling elevations of 9 and 12 metres.

True to the studio's values, the architecture uses a mixed wood/concrete structure without pretension or artifice, the wooden components are largely prefabricated.

HacineCherifi is a boxer from the city that made history in 1998 at the Astroballe when he became the first French middleweight world champion.

The structure includes a gymnastics hall (880 m2), a multipurpose sports hall (1.100 sqm) and the necessary spaces to accommodate the general public and sportsmen and women.

The volumes are organized in a very simple way. The two rooms are set at right angles around a block that houses all the support services. The terraces offer seating for up to 400 spectators, which overlooks the multi-purpose sports hall and opens at the back to the entrance area and the cafeteria, which are clearly visible from the outdoor public spaces. The fully glazed facade facing the street, offers glimpses of activities inside the facility without disturbing the sporting or training events taking place nearby

To limit the impact of the structure on the surrounding urban environment, the architects used the difference in elevation between the street and the interior of the plot to integrate part of the building into the slope. This also enabled them to create access to the top of the building. This allowed them to reduce the height of the building on the street to within 6 metres. The dimensions correspond to the scale of the nearby school and the residential structure of the neighbourhood.

The building has a very simple shape and the facades are unadorned. While the style of the schools is fluid and landscaped, the gymnasium has a more sober style whereas it has a more stable and robust style. It occupies the north corner of the project at the intersection of two of Rilleux's main streets. The main façade to the east on rue Salignat affirms the public status of the facility with a large glazed façade with a cantilevered volume. At the rear, to the west, the building is purposefully concealed, like the residential floor under construction. To the south it overlooks the schools, located on the opposite side of a pedestrian alleyway that provides access to the schools.

As in all projects by TectoniquesArchitectes, the construction system is both comprehensible and visible. The concrete walls supporting the height of the underground section of the building have been left visible from the inside. Above these walls, the structures are all made of wood. The main structure consists of a series of portal frames. These are made of glulam, pillars and beams with a span of 34 metres, placed on a footprint of 5.8 square metres.

For transport purposes, the beams were built in two parts, stored and screwed together on site with metal eyelets. Lifting and placing the beams on the site created a very dramatic stage in the construction process.

The 2000 square metres of components that make up the external cladding are prefabricated, assembled with an external wall insulation system around the structure. From the outside, the system is made up of three layers of spruce panels above the battens, the OSB panels that form the base of the boxes, the 36 cm deep square box filled with straw, a wood fibre panel, 40 mm insulation, the rain barrier and the cladding consisting of three layers of spruce boards on which wooden tiles, also made of locally sourced spruce are fixed.

The beams are placed alternately to the roof construction above and below the level of the columns. This system creates large windows with horizontal bands facing north and controlling the height of the beams. This provides abundant ambient illumination but avoids excessive glare.