Location: Machault, France Year: 2024 Architects: AT-O Photography by: Antoine Mercusot
ANCHORING Located in the French village of Machault, with a population of around 800, between the cemetery, the church and the grain silo, this sports facility shines, by its size, across the neighboring towns.
Indeed, this building built in the 70's by the architectural firm Halleux Gottardi Claudel is not limited to its sporting aspect. It also hosts many events such as flea markets, festivals or national holiday as the Bastille Day. A gathering place that had to be brought up to contemporary standards in order to keep hosting this large audience.
In addition, two soccer fields, a tennis court and a pétanque strip are provided by the town hall. Therefore, the site increases the multiplicity of uses, a crucial contemporary concern.
Open for all the society, it must also ensure its accessibility for people with reduced mobility both from the public space and through its internal corridors.
Finally, as a societal challenge and in the heart of new environmental regulations, the project aims for a new skin in order to provide the necessary comfort for the users.
ENVELOPE The renovation of the sport hall is the first phase of the total refurbishment. The ambitions mentioned beforehand impose major changes and thus offer an opportunity to pursue writing the story of the building.
Attentive to a generous amount of light throughout the day without disturbing the users, the project features a wide peripheral strip of polycarbonate in order to replace the 12 existing windows. This diaphanous material offers a soft and homogeneous light in accordance to the sun path.
This bold horizontal, symbol of the project, addresses to the sky. A second one underlining it, addresses the ground and anchors the project. Directly related to the human body height, the wood brings warmth as a living material.
This vertical wooden cladding from Northern pine echoes the thin blades of the previous cladding well known by the citizens. Its copper finish warms up the composition and highlights by contrast the luminous polycarbonate ribbon. In order to welcome the greatest number of people into the facilty, the old windows are transformed into 4 generous glass doors. In bronze-coloured aluminium, they anticipate the patina of time and the future hues of wood, a living material that will express the trajectory of the sun and its level of intensity. Indeed, the façade presented on the picture is facing south and will be the most exposed.
Finally, the crowning, reinforces the contrast of the bright strip due to its dark grey color. The horizontal composition is emphasized respectively by the choice of materials. On the contrary, each one of them is using a vertical pattern, weither with the cladding or the standing seams on the roof.
ATMOSPHERE In order to be surprising, the interior contrasts with the rurality and rusticity of its envelope.
Deliberately sober using neutral tones, the project enhances the existing remains. Indeed, the old climbing wall made out of raw stones, reminiscence for the inhabitants of the city as a memory of their childhood, is preserved and enhanced by contrast with the surrounding whiteness. Similarly, the orange concrete walls are preserved but covered with a thin layer of white paint keeping the joints visible.
For structural reasons, the existing red metal framework has been reinforced and painted into off-white in order to be harmonized with the whole. Meanwhile, during the roof renovation, perforated metal underside white pannels have been installed to ensure optimal acoustics, whether for sporting or municipal events.
The overall is delicately highlighted by the filtered and homogeneous light of the milky polycarbonate ribbon. An envelopping soft feeling of brightness is created withing this generous volume bathed in light. Text description by the architects.
