The building of the gym in Tourrette Levens is part of a plot where is erected asecondary school, and a gymnasium. This new building reserved for students andassociations is intended for gymnastics and circus.
The program simplicity led us to reflect on the plastic side of the project. In fact, thearea of study of the circus, put out the physical and moral development, includes acultural, artistic, and social. The transience of the circus that is assembled anddisassembled in cities remains in the collective unconscious. Our project is anallegory of the circus tent.
The idea is simple " a concrete box that was covered with a cloth ". Concealmentbecomes mystery, and make us perceive differently what was commonplace before.We wanted to create a sculptural object concealed and packed in a skin of concrete,corrugated as a wavy stage curtain. The yellow ocher color gives the blind walls anexpression of lightness heightened by the fact that the stamped concrete does nottouch the ground. Because of this, the object, which could have been a simple gym,takes an artistic dimension.
The volume chosen is voluntary simple : a rectangular parallelepiped of 14 meterswide and 8 meters in height in continuity of the existing gymnasium and detachedfrom it by the volume of the entrance hall and deposits, which is less high.By its presence, the project aims to complete the overall design of the existing sportsfacilities, by standing as a new south gable.
A single material wraps all the facades of the object. It walls are made of a stampedand painted concrete called "draped concrete" with a texture reminiscent of stagecurtains.The texture of the drapery is obtained by using two alternating matrices of slightlydifferent patterns, but the same height as the concrete shells, specially designed forthe project. Those walls have been casted all the way up, and the self-placingconcrete has been poured in a single process so as not to reveal a horizontal joint.The vertical ones disappear in the pattern of the drapery.
Inside the room, a natural light is achieved by the presence of two major openings,not noticeable from the outside, a glass square on the roof, centered on the room,and a horizontal window in the north facade.In this volume, the human scale is found by the calpinage at the bottom (2m50), abounding of impact resistant OSB panels. And at the top we used acoustic woodwool insulation panels. The ceiling is made of raw concrete.A direct connection to the existing gymnasium was constructed to promoteexchanges between the various sports.
By this project, the idea of a building disappears in favor of an object carved inrelation to its context and program. The rationale for the staging of such an objectlies in the definition of the close relationship between sports, circus, entertainment,art, and social.
