Located across from the St-Etienne station on the Esplanade de France, the influence of the intervention at the heart of the ZAC Châteaucreux is a link between neighborhoods and horizon lines, a low point in the topography of St-Etienne in front of a preferred route to the city center. Combined with the scale of the project and the symbolic value of the program, this unique location gives the project a special status in the construction of the city.
Between city center and boulevard, the gymnasium is part of a global project of urban requalification.
The program imposes the creation of a void where sports activities (sports field and climbing wall) will take place. This vacuum imposed by the sporting uses draws from the outset the volumetric draft of the project which is summed up with a regular parallelepiped implanted along the boulevard. From this constraint, the project seeks to radiate beyond its own physical limits. The urban scale then becomes the means of punctuating the main volume and anchoring it in the site and in the city. It is through urban windows that the building directs, locates, and articulates this new urban project in the city. These windows are voluntarily out of scale, and are expressed by point stretches of the main volume. Focusing on existing urban and landscape events (garden, large Sequoia, crassier), they become a pretext for opening views and favoring natural light. The use of extruded aluminum on the façade contributes to the moderation of the building’s mass by means of changes in color, light, and volume perception.
The site is a vital liaison point between the centre of Saint-Etienne and the new Chateaucreux neighbourhood, to which it forms a major entranceway. It also constitutes a pole grouping several government bodies that will set up there : Regional Development Authority, Tax Services, Epora, Saint-Etienne Métropole, and so on. Service and leisure facilities will also be part of the mix: shared corporate restaurant, café, tourism bureau for the metropolitan area.
Figures: Surface : 25.000sqm
Length : 108 m, width : 43 m, max height. : 34 m
Cantilever 25 m X 20 m without any grounding support
Dates : 2005: design constest, 2006-2007 : studies, 2008-2010 : works, delivery : september 2010
The site is a vital liaison point between the centre of Saint-Etienne and the new Chateaucreux neighbourhood, to which it forms a major entranceway. It also constitutes a pole grouping several government bodies that will set up there : Regional Development Authority, Tax Services, Epora, Saint-Etienne Métropole, and so on. Service and leisure facilities will also be part of the mix: shared corporate restaurant, café, tourism bureau for the metropiltan area.
Located across from the St. Etienne station on the Esplanade de France, the influence of the intervention at the heart of the BIA Châteaucreux Is A Link Between Neighborhoods and horizon lines, a low point in the Topography of St. Etienne in front of a preferred route to the city center. Combined with the scale of the project and the symbolic value of the program, This unique location Gives the project has special status in the building of the city.
After winning a competition commissioned by the Public Urban Planning Agency of Saint-Etienne (France), the Collectif Etc designed a public square of 670 sq. m. and built it with the inhabitants in a participative process in July 2011.