Pierre-Paul Bernard Stadium / Ok-architectures
- Space:
5102 m²
Yr:
2023
Context. Inaugurated in 1976, Talence’s Pierre-Paul Bernard stadium was constructed within the coronary heart of the Thouars woods. This location affords an exceptionally wild atmosphere. The positioning is especially devoted to athletics and hosts nationwide and worldwide occasions, notably the Décastar, which has been a part of the IAAF (World Athletics) world problem in mixed occasions since 1998. Kevin Mayer set the decathlon world document right here in 2018. Since then, the positioning has change into an important step for world-class athletes, in addition to Bordeaux’s largest annual sporting occasion, attracting over 15,000 spectators.
ln March 2020, the Décastar acquired the Heritage plaque from World Athletics on the Pierre-Paul Bernard stadium. This award celebrates the distinctive contribution of this worldwide assembly to the historical past and growth of athletics worldwide.
ln 2016, the «Bordeaux Métropole» group of municipalities appointed Ok ARCHITECTURES to renovate the stadium’s monitor and grandstands, in addition to to construct a upkeep division, and, above all, a brand new sport advanced housing indoor observe halls, a dojo, a weight room, an administrative division and areas of conviviality.
Problem. The Thouars communal wooden is a pure monument within the metropolis. To construct a further 4,000 m2 with out eradicating a single tree appeared magical. Right here was the everlasting and infinitely present dilemma: «Can we sacrifice a residing cathedra! to make approach for a man-made chapel? And, even when grassed glades had lengthy been reclaimed from pure biotopes, what kind may this program take throughout the panorama when it required shed-sized buildings?
Idea. For Karine Herman and Jérôme Sigwalt, Thouars Wooden is a residing fantasy. it’s the illustration of a utopia, that of a country perfect the place mankind has regained the power to reside in symbiosis with the remainder of the residing world. The venture imagines a forest narrative by which structure is written, mimetically and minimally, by slipping between the timber. This system’s huge halls have been imagined as a hamlet of rudimentary barns. The volumes have been fragmented and divided by redents, each in plan and profile, to cut back the sense of mass. Their facades are product of darkened picket battens as if immersed within the shadow of the cover. Roofs are lowered to a skinny, modest corrugated metallic sheet, evoking sheets of mist.
The simplicity and minimization of superfluous components of those constructions underline a pared-down life-style, emphasizing the important. It’s a venture that speaks of serenity, within the presence of nature, with which it seeks to reconcile itself – and within the presence of athletes – to supply them peace of thoughts.
The simplicity and minimization of superfluous components of those constructions underline a pared-down life-style, emphasizing the important. lt is a venture that speaks of serenity, within the presence of nature, with which it seeks to reconcile itself – and within the presence of athletes – to supply them peace of thoughts.
This structure can also be a continuation of the native historical past, of the «Girolle», the favored home designed by the «École Bordelaise» within the 60s. The lightness of its roofs, their extensive overhangs, the play of transparencies, the invitation of pure gentle in addition to the invitation of the panorama itself, the constructive sincerity assumed in addition to using wooden as an architectural materials are all frequent qualities with this little home typically discovered within the sandy pinewoods of the area.
ln tact, to deliver the story into context, it was these identical pine forests that grew the maritime pines used to make the glulam framework for the stadium’s new buildings. Wooden is extensively used for structural and cladding functions for 2 causes. The primary is its high quality as a bio-sourced materials and its capability to entice giant portions of C02.
The second, extra subjective, lies in its cultural capability to convey a delicate, pure picture linked to the values defended by the venture. However this subjectivity isn’t whole, apparently, biologists have measured the biophilic impact of wooden and located a ten% enhance in well-being in architectures dominated by its presence.
All facades are clad within the «shadow» of burnt wooden cladding impressed by the Japanese strategy of Yakisugi[1 ], actually «burnt cedar». That is an ancestral observe rooted in respect for each man and nature. lt is obtained by deeply burning the floor of the wooden. it’s each sensible and symbolic. Naturally handled on this approach, the fabric turns into extra resistant to fireplace, bugs, and fungi.
