Several lines structured our approach: our intentions were to bring in light and heat, to erase, as much as possible, the delimitation between the inside and the outside, to create an acoustic divide between the quiet zones and the noisy ones, to make use of warm matériel to give priority to a simple circulation, while at the same time to respect sanitary rules.

We have therefore given priority to south-south-eastern  as well as south-western orientations. We wanted  to take the greatest benefit of the solar supply. The walls of the pool hall are made of glass, and anyone inside the pool may therefore easily feel the pleasure of the rays of sunshine on one’s skin. The changing-rooms for school kids and for the general public are lit and brightened up by a patio which is flooded by natural light and yet protected from the winds.

There are two pools: one is for the sporting activities, the other for water games. In between, one can find the winter solarium, whose roof, in summer, can be removed. Visually, this solarium is a natural extension of the hall, and functionally, it works as the  extension of the outdoor deck. 

The decision of keeping the outdoor pool came very early and this logical decision gave the building its « lines of forces ». Our idea was that, once the building would be completed, this outdoor pool would not be seen as a foreign body nor as a simple survival of the past.

The external shape of the building is characterised by  two features, simplicity and warmth: it is the right angles and the parallelepipedic volumes that bring simplicity while the wide and curved roof, shaped as a soft wave, brings warmth.

Complexity only unveils itself when one takes a closer look at or stands inside the building: yet what we mean by complexity doesn’t involve confusion, and no element stands out to prevent an immediate and natural understanding of the paths to follow and the destinations to reach.

There were four main components to our approach: one was the understanding of how this building would operate, the second one was to respect the initial budget that had been allocated, the third one was to comply with the use of the land that had been allocated, the fourth one was to create several atmospheres within the buildings; but beyond these priorities, we also gave all our attention to defining what a building , in these early years of a new millennium, should look like and stand for, in terms of dynamism, social interaction, conviviality, user friendliness, and last but not least symbolism.
 
Contractor :  municipality of Cognac