Water sports center of La Jonction

The site is seen as a resource. The project therefore plans to make use of existing structures and materials on the site, with the partial demolition of the TPG depots and the total demolition of the building currently housing the offices of the daily newspaper Le Courrier. This process of reuse in situ achieves two objectives: the first concerns the overall economy of the project in terms of its carbon footprint, and the second allows the life cycle of materials and the new architectural possibilities offered by this approach to be illustrated to a wide audience in a direct and easily understandable way. The method used here consists of adapting and reinterpreting a built substance present on the site: the planned dismantling of the TPG depot structures makes it possible to directly recycle the large metal trusses, their posts, and rafters for use as load-bearing structures. The fact that these steel structures are bolted together makes them easy to dismantle and suitable for virtuous reuse. To pave the new ground floor platform and outdoor terraces for the project, concrete slabs from the existing building can be cut precisely to the appropriate modules and formats. Finally, for the implementation of the fiberglass cocoon, an industrial recycling process exists that uses pyrolysis to transform fiberglass from old boats sent to landfill and reconstitute fiberglass for a new life cycle. 

To house the heated parts of the premises, we propose suspending a floor designed in the form of a large single shell, or “cocoon,” under the reused roof. This principle echoes the archaic architectural theme of the “sovereign shelter,” with the building forming a kind of canopy that covers and protects the uses. The cocoon forms the heated main floor, which itself houses the ground floor, designed as an open plan organized into three different boxes containing the boats and minimally heated rooms, as well as open areas providing cover and passageways.