Piscine Tourcoing, French Olympic Swimming Pool Building, Project, News, Design

Olympic Swimming Pool in France : Tourcoing Building

Aquatic Architectural Project France – by Mikou Design Studio architects

6 Mar 2013

Olympic Swimming Pool in Tourcoing

Design: Mikou Design Studio architects

Location: Tourcoing, Nord, north east France

Piscine Tourcoing, France

construction work started in autumn 2012

Piscine Tourcoing

A diverse landscape of pure forms and large sheets of light that illuminate the city Tourcoing’s new Olympic swimming pool is an emblematic facility in the city, with four completely visible, unobstructed facades, opening onto a ribbon of greenery on the South-West and onto a large set-back space forming an esplanade on the South-East, facing the entrance.

Our scheme aimed to take advantage of this special urban setting through facilitating a variety of viewpoints of the building by breaking up the mass of the swimming pool hall, tiered bleacher seating and changing rooms into a series of crosswise roof-lights parallel to the esplanade, of variable height, which provide both natural lateral light for every part of the building and appropriate through ventilation.

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This alternation and modulation of volumes lightens the built mass by a play of visual counterpoints and opens the perception of depth towards the middle of the building, allowing all its functional parts to be clearly identified.

The crosswise modulation of roof-lights of variable heights on the entire building, like the moving keys of a piano, establishes a dynamic of solid and glazed volumes in the urban space. Thus the building is not seen as a large, massive, silent shed-like structure, but is rather defined as a diverse landscape of pure forms of very varied heights that step down from the diving well and the swimming pool hall to the tiered seating and the changing rooms located on a lower level.

The roof-lights are elements

that unify the scheme, defining the building’s structural identity and determining the quality of the light and of the internal spaces.

These roof-lights contribute to the building’s strong image, and they will support night-time artificial lighting.

At night, the building is seen as a succession of large sheets of light of pure forms that illuminate the city while highlighting the diffracted volumes of the diving well, the swimming pool hall, the tiered seating, the changing rooms, the administration offices and the entrance hall. These volumes of light contribute to the strong image and identity of Tourcoing’s new swimming pool.

The metaphor of water through a play of reflections and the modulation of matter We designed the building so that its facades express the metaphor of water through a play of reflections and the modulation of matter. The building’s envelope is composed of polished aluminium panels treated with a pattern of perforations and embossed relief elements.

These panels follow the variations in the building’s volumes by means of nuances of grey and ochre, with tones that vary according to their orientation and the level where they are located.

In general, the panels located at the top are in light tones to lighten the building’s mass and accentuate the reflections of light.

At the bottom, a prefabricated moulded concrete plinth protects the facility’s base. The moulded concrete panels of different heights run along the entire building and are extended by the polished aluminium placed flush with them on the same continuous vertical plane.

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Olympic Swimming Pool in Tourcoing – Building Information

PROGRAMME: Olympic pool of 50m, diving pool, 1000 spectator capacity, sports hall, cafeteria, administration
LOCATION: Tourcoing
CLIENT:Lille Metropole
DESIGN COMPANY: Mikou Studio
SURFACE: 10 000 m²
DATE: Ongoing project
PICTURES: Mikou studio

Olympic Swimming Pool in Tourcoing images / information from Mikou Design Studio

Mikou Design Studio France

Tourcoing is designated municipally as a commune within the département of Nord. Tourcoing is situated near the cities of Lille and Roubaix and the Belgian border

Location: Tourcoing, France, north west Europe

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A recent French swimming pool building on e-architect:

Aqua Leisure Center in Val de Scarpe, Arras, north east France
Design: SAREA Alain Sarfati Architecture
Aqua Leisure Center Arras

Another French swimming pool building design on e-architect:

Annemasse Aquatic Centre, France
Design: Serero Architects
Annemasse Aquatic Centre Building

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Website: Tourcoing, Nord

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photograph : Aitor Ortiz
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Comments / photos for the Piscine Tourcoing – French Olympic Swimming Pool Building page welcome

Website: Tourcoing