A floating twisted sail Situated between the Mediterranean Sea and themountain overlooking the City, the Léo Lagrangestadium stands on a 8 ha site, limited to cover allthe required functions, but with limitless viewsto the beautiful natural landscape of the FrenchRiviera.The Stadium is laid out perpendicularly to thehighway to enhance the remarkable perspectiveby offering a side-glance to the drivers passingalong and to create an urban landmark.The sports complex is treated as a park. It’s open to thepromenade for the neighborhood and dedicated to sportsactivities: three football/rugby pitches of national standards,all the multidisciplinary athletics and six schoolplaying fields are available to the sportsmen.This project combines the urban uses while respectingthe requirements of a high-level sports facility.The self-cleaning fabric roof complex enables to store therainwaters to water the fields and solar panels provide thelocal water heating power.
The architectural urban design is structured byits legibility, consistency and openness to thedistrict. All constructed volumes for competitionand public greeting are concentrated withina covered public footbridge designed like a jettythat recalls Toulon’s historic ties with the sea.The two stands for almost 3 500 viewers, have aunique design: they are displayed along a single200 m line, overlooking on two opposite sidedpitches.A thin white twisted sail magnifies the project,with 20m widths and 200m lengths. Its minimalisticdesign combines the minimal conditions tocover the stands, and the minimal mass to guarantee itsbalance. It’s the result of the very close work between thearchitect and the structural engineer.This jetty’s light and aerial architecture, makes it seemdetached from the gravity, like a sailing ship.It offers a covered, belvedere-like walkway with close-upviews of the sport fields and more distant ones of the horizonand Mount Faron and Coudon.By night, the inner-lit textile cover turns into a luminousribbon, like a wave of light and gives full expression to theplace’s sporting and event functions.
