From a prison to the swimming pool

The O aqualudic center is located 10 minutes walk from Orléans train station, instead of the old remand center closed in 2014.

Formerly an urban break with its environment and marked by a long perimeter wall, the site now offers a public program that dialogues with its neighborhood.

Designed in an urban and landscape approach, the project pursues three unifying ideas :

- Open towards the city center to the south without turning your back on Boulevard Guy Marie Riobé, metropolitan axis to the north,

- Maintain the domestic scale of the adjoining urban fabric by dividing the mass of the building into several volumes,

- Undertake an unprecedented landscaping approach and make the building disappear from the heart of the plant.

Discreet Architecture

The reflection around the relationship between the territory of the Center Val de Loire, its river and its plant ecosystem was the starting point of the urban and architectural design of the project.

Thus, the mineral imprint of the old prison structure gives way to an abundant nature which allows a glimpse of sports equipment. In this green setting, a humble architecture of transparency, water and air contributes to the comfort of views of the district for its inhabitants and its neighbors.

Wooden frame and metal walkway

The main entrance to the equipment is under a remarkable shade on the south forecourt, while a second access to the north in R + 1 provides access to a metal footbridge crossing the aqualudic center in its entire length.

The timber frame building is divided into 4 volumes accommodating the 4 programs - sports hall, aqualudic center, wellness area and changing rooms - connected by the central north-south circulation which integrates the reception areas and administrative annexes.

The building is bordered by private landscaped car parks whose connections to the entrances are provided by widely planted pedestrian paths, filtering the views between site users and residents of the neighborhood.

A park and equipment place

Covered with glass walls with high solar control, slightly mirrored, the two volumes of basins provide a view of the park in which the swimming pool is located : the rich endogenous flora and fauna, the remarkable cedars and large-scale plane trees preserved for the project, newly planted tall-stemmed trees and semi-intensive green roofs. All these elements allow users to swim in nature in the heart of the city, the building to disappear in the park, the project to obtain the BiodiverCity label - a first for an aquatic center.

The two more intimate cloakroom and well-being spaces are more opaque and less open to the outside. Their solid surfaces and rounded shapes also disappear thanks to the mirror-polished stainless steel cladding which is applied entirely to them. The entire complex thus plays with vegetal reflections to blend into this new landscape.

BIM and Prefab

The site relies on the prefabricated with 90% of the concrete framework, glued laminated beams, sauna, changing rooms, pool liners using the Myrthapool process (laser survey on site, custom made off site, manufacturing and installation faster than traditional tiling, fewer joints and better waterproofing). This prefabrication, ordered before the health crisis, allowed the site to have little impact on its deadlines.

The project carried out in BIM level 2i from the first design phases to execution, interweaving several regularly updated models, allowing in particular the BIM synthesis on site by tablet throughout the site and particularly high precision of the setting. implementation of underground machinery. Also shared with subcontractors and then with the operator for maintenance after delivery.