UCPA Sport Station Grand Reims
The UCPA Sport Station Grand Reims plays host to a wide array of sports practices, with its three swimming pools, skating rink, fitness space and padel and squash courts.
An aquatic sports center and skating rink in harmony with the environment
The sports complex is open, visible, and welcoming. The building is organized on a technical base in order to preserve the privacy of swimmers while also opening urban perspectives from the swimming hall. The areas planted directly in the ground and the tree, part of the decor of the swimming hall provides a green presence in the facility.
The urban character of the facility was an important consideration in its architectural development. Here, the aim was to provide aim was to maintain the necessarily private aspect of recreational aquatic activities, without limiting the pleasure of the light associated with the pleasure of water.
The project is laid out in accordance with two major architectural principles:
- longitudinally, the center’s features are organized in the hall between the skating rink, the padel and squash courts, and the clubhouse on the square, to enliven street life on Avenue Jules César and to create views over the facility revealing the swimming pool hall, resting atop its base on the upper level. Gardens followed by terraces and open onto the town, on the north side are in dialogue with the outdoor area of the skating link.
- transversally, the roof is transformed into a tool for regulating light, filtered on the sporting pools and freer in the water games area.
Thus, this project is not a question of “composition” but rather of a building that relies on its urban location to serve swimmers and sportspeople in their use of the building, while providing quality light and the desired level of privacy. The unity of the roof-façade, the structure it organizes, and the formal freedom it conveys, all serve as a link between its urban insertion and the pleasure of the sporting facility’s users. Easy uses and safe and sociable operations The new aquatic leisure complex is able to meet the needs of the public throughout the year, and thus adapt the sports and leisure offer according to the season. The notion of a seasonal program is important in the project because the facility will be used by everyone, all year long. In winter, the skating rink and the outdoor spaces will be occupied by activities related to the climate (toboggan run and icefall), in summer both outdoor and indoor spaces will offer golf, tree-top adventure course, rock climbing, and trampoline. The shops on the southern façade, on the Place de la République are independent from the operations of the aquatic leisure complex. The coworking space, on level 3, above the changing rooms is also independently operated. It is accessed from the south of the Jules César Mall.
