Stadium Stands, French Sports Ground Design, France, Images, Architects

Léo Lagrange Stadium

Sports Ground Building, France – design by archi5 studio

10 Jun 2016 ; 26 Jun 2014

Léo Lagrange Stadium in Toulon

Design: archi5 studio

A Floating Twisted Sail

Situated between the Mediterranean Sea and the mountain overlooking the City, the Léo Lagrange Stadium Stands on a 8 ha site, limited to cover all the required functions, but with limitless views to the beautiful natural landscape of the French Riviera.

The Stadium is laid out perpendicularly to the highway to enhance the remarkable perspective by offering a side-glance to the drivers passing along and to create an urban landmark.

The sports complex is treated as a park. It’s open to the promenade for the neighborhood and dedicated to sports activities: three football/rugby pitches of national standards, all the multidisciplinary athletics and six school playing fields are available to the sportsmen.

This project combines the urban uses while respecting the requirements of a high-level sports facility. The self-cleaning fabric roof complex enables to store the rainwaters to water the fields and solar panels provide the local water heating power.

The architectural urban design is structured by its legibility, consistency and openness to the district. All constructed volumes for competition and public greeting are concentrated within a covered public footbridge designed like a jetty that recalls Toulon’s historic ties with the sea.

The two stands for almost 3 500 viewers, have a unique design: they are displayed along a single 200 m line, overlooking on two opposite sided pitches.

A thin white twisted sail magnifies the project, with 20m widths and 200m lengths. Its minimalistic design combines the minimal conditions to cover the stands, and the minimal mass to guarantee its balance. It’s the result of the very close work between the architect and the structural engineer.

This jetty’s light and aerial architecture, makes it seem detached from the gravity, like a sailing ship. It offers a covered, belvedere-like walkway with close-up views of the sport fields and more distant ones of the horizon and Mount Faron and Coudon. By night, the inner-lit textile cover turns into a luminous ribbon, like a wave of light and gives full expression to the place’s sporting and event functions.

Photography : Sergio Grazia