贝济耶体育宫丨法国丨全景建筑事务所（Panorama Architecture）

A building thought as an object. Sports Palace in Béziers by Panorama Architecture

[Béziers] France

A building thought as an object. Sports Palace in Béziers by Panorama Architecture

The "Béziers Sports Palace", designed by the architectural studio

Panorama Architecture

, houses a sports space to respond to the promotion of its women's volleyball team to the elite, responding in turn to the needs of the city's metropolitan area. of Béziers, in France.

Trying to be directly visible along the access roads to the city, this building grows with sports facilities, and a coherent and balanced image, thanks to the lightness of the aluminum mesh that makes up the façade. The project creates a simple building, whose geometry adapts to the location, orientations, and uses.

Panorama Architecture

team, based on the idea of multifunctionality, organizes the interior space thanks to a large modular room that allows multiple configurations to be considered, emphasizing volleyball, while also facilitating other activities. A hallway allows spectators to quickly enter and exit the court, independently of the athletes, generously opening to a large main entrance to the south and locating the emergency exit to the north.

The pavilion is distinguished by comfort without ostentation and a balanced indoor stadium atmosphere, thanks to a diffuse and welcoming light caused by the natural light filtered through the façade.

Sports Palace in Béziers by Panorama Architecture. Photograph by Aldo Almoretti.

Panorama Architecture

The construction of the Palais des Sports de Béziers responds to an expectation long expressed by the Béziers metropolitan area and its population, particularly since the rise to the elite level of the women's volleyball team, the Béziers Angels. The site chosen for the project is the Mazeran ZAC, a 90 ha park dedicated to tertiary activity to the east of the city. Its strategic location and its immediate accessibility by major highways, its ease of access by soft modes from the city center, and its quality environment (low building density, careful landscaping) make it a suitable space for the establishment of equipment such as the Palais des Sports.

The project provides for the construction of a building on land of 23,000 m² with a capacity of 2,751 places, a gauge that matches the ambitions of Béziers Angel which is now at the level of European competition.

Sports Palace in Béziers by Panorama Architecture. Photograph by Aldo Almoretti.

The Panorama Architecture agency was selected in 2020 from three competing candidates. His project is based on the need to make the Sports Palace a strong signal at the entrance to the city to take into account its particular location, in the heart of the new Mazeran ZAC, still almost empty of any construction. A building was thus born designed as an object, marked by an aluminum mesh covering the building, a mesh of copper-colored tubes assembled diagonally. The Sports Palace constitutes both a marker of the territory, visible from the eastern entrance to the city, and a structuring architectural gesture for the future ZAC. Of great aesthetic richness, the project also poses an architectural challenge, the building being erected on a large base, itself built on land, part of which is sloping. Another major issue: the demanding functionality of the equipment, due to multiple uses, becomes here a foundation of the architectural project. A passageway allows spectators to quickly enter and exit the arena, the building opens generously onto a large main entrance to the south and an emergency exit is positioned to the north. As for the movement of athletes, it is done completely independently of the public according to a clean and distinct circuit, in compliance with safety and hygiene rules.

The new equipment of almost 7,000 m² is presented as a simple and unitary building. In its center, the large, modular room allows multiple configurations to be considered to accommodate volleyball but also any other sporting activity, the challenge of the project being of course to develop activities, with a strong commercial dimension. We can imagine that soon the Palais des sports de Béziers could host tennis or badminton tournaments, handball matches, basketball matches and boxing fights.

Sports Palace in Béziers by Panorama Architecture. Photograph by Aldo Almoretti.

The floor is a unitary volume whose rounded shapes recall the central character of the arena. 360-degree glazing, 3.60 m high, runs around the entire circumference of the room. Natural light delicately invites itself into the space, filtered by the aluminum mesh, and gives the room a pleasant and healthy atmosphere. The depth of these elements forming large sunshades makes it possible to control sunlight. The room is thus highlighted by diffuse and welcoming light.

Panorama Architecture.

BET.- BG Ingénieurs conseils, Egis bâtiments Michel Frustié, Marshall Days Acoustics, 8’18’ .

Béziers-Mediterranean urban community.

6.930 sqm.

2021 – 2024.

Béziers, France.

€11 M.

Aldo Almoretti.

Ignacio Tillard, Olivier Brouwez. Panorama Architecture

Panorama Architecture

Ignacio Tillard

and

Olivier Brouwez

re-founded this architecture firm in 2019 after taking the reins of the Fradin-Weck Architecture agency from the hands of their founders Jacques Fradin and Jean-Michel Weck, in Aix-en-Provence, France.

The Panorama architecture firm has been working on a wide range of projects for 20 years now. They are working in the Provence-Alpes Côte d'Azur region and beyond. We won the competitions for the construction of the Fort Vauban university gymnasium in Nîmes and that of the Nyons high school in Drôme.

One of the characteristics differentiating the firm resides in the quality of its architecture: restraint, elegance, simplicity, long-lasting are all terms that describe the firm’s identity. These solid foundations have enabled partners Olivier Brouwez and Ignacio Tillard to develop a new vision based on the desire to reinvent, test and develop.