100 years after it last hosted the Olympic Games, Paris gears up for the summer. The only permanent new building for the 2024 Games – together with the expanded green public space and the new bridge that connects the stadium with the Stade de France and the rest of Paris – the Aquatics Center is an important investment in the future of Saint-Denis and the Paris metropolitan region. The innovative award-winning project is set to create an unforgettable experience of the Games and promises a lasting legacy for the neighborhood and beyond.
Designed by VenhoevenCS architecture+urbanism and Ateliers 2/3/4/, timber has been extensively used to construct the swooping form of this indoor swimming pool. The Aquatics Center will be low-carbon and all the building materials will be bio-based. Its timber structure and roof frame are designed to blend seamlessly into the surrounding greenery. With a 5,000 sqm roof covered with photovoltaic panels, it will be one of France’s
largest urban solar farms and supply all the energy that the center needs.
Healthy city district
The Aquatics Center goes beyond environmental regulations and requirements. Sustainability and biodiversity are key in all aspects of its design. It is a modern and innovative sports complex surrounded by abundant vegetation that seriously contributes to a livable and healthy city district for the people in Saint-Denis. To also stimulate a healthy lifestyle after the Games, the building will be open and transparent and
accommodate a wide range of sports and events, both indoor and outdoor.
According to the architects, nature was the main inspiration for the design concept. Nature is continuously evolving and adapting to changing circumstances, resulting in harmonious and balanced ecosystems. The Aquatics Center invites nature itself in the heart of the new ‘city-district-inthe- making’ of Saint-Denis. This very compact proposal creates room for one hundred trees that will be planted to improve the quality of life and air, stimulate biodiversity and create new ecological connections.
Impressive wooden structure
Wood, one of the quintessential bio-based construction materials, is used to create themain structure of this building, and has been left visible in areas including an 80-meter-long roof that swoops over the pool. The design of the Aquatics Center features an impressive wooden roof, a suspended shape with minimal construction height that strictly follows the required minimum space for tribunes, people and sightlines, thereby minimizing the amount of air
conditioning.
According to the architects, the use of wood informed the implementation of a French sustainability law that requires all new public buildings to be built from at least 50 percent timber or other natural materials. By using wood for this monumental structure, the proposal doubles the required minimum percentage of bio-sourced materials. The Olympic arena under the roof, with tribunes on three sides, can host 5,000 spectators around an innovative, modular and multifunctional competition pool.
90 percent renewable or recovered energy and upcycled furniture
Energy consumption is one of the big challenges for swimming pools, due to water treatment and high temperature demands. By reducing the energy demand and creating a smart energy system, 90 percent of the needed energy can be provided with renewable or recovered energy. The solar roof will be one of the biggest solar farms in France and will cover 20 percent of all required electricity production. 100 percent of the energy produced by the solar roof is utilized directly on-site. Moreover, all tribune chairs are newly designed and made out of 100 percent recycled plastic collected from the surrounding neighborhood.
Livable neighborhood for the community
By gathering people around sports and leisure, the new Aquatics Center creates a neighborhood that builds bridges between cultures and districts whilst making use of the facilities and surrounding public spaces. There is also the literal connection, with a new pedestrian bridge that crosses the highway and connects the public spaces around Stade de France with the Aquatic Center and the new heart of the future eco neighborhood of La Plaine Saulnier.
“As designers, our aim was to create more with less: less volume, less materials, less energy, more connection, more inspiration to exercise, more nature, more flexibility, more beauty. The result is a driving force in the urban regeneration of Saint-Denis and Greater Paris, an architecture that is as sober as it is striking, but above all a place where everyone feels welcome,” – VenhoevenCS and ateliers 2/3/4/.
Legacy
The Aquatics Center, along with Le Bourget Climbing Wall, is the only permanent sports facility to be built for the Paris 2024 Games. In 2024, it will welcome the world’s greatest athletes for the artistic swimming, water polo and diving events. Looking beyond the Games, the Aquatics Center has been designed to address the needs of Seine-Saint-Denis (its host region, and the French swimming community, which will now have a facility that can host the biggest national and international competitions. From swimming lessons to recreational use and high-level competitions, the Aquatics Center will be multi-functional. From July 2025, the Aquatics Center will become a vast multi-sports facility open to all, including two pools (50m and 25m), a fitness area, bouldering area, paddle tennis section and pitches for team sports. It will also have an adjustable floor to serve a variety of purposes (swimming lessons for babies and children, etc.).
The Aquatics Center will also be the state-of-the-art facility that the French swimming community has been looking forward to for decades. The French Swimming Federation will be able to host national and international competitions in its four indoor disciplines. It will also provide a best-inclass federal training facility for leading French athletes and will notably be home to the country’s diving center.
