Architects: Ateliers O-S architectes
Area: 5550 m²
Year: 2025
Photographs: Cyrille Weiner
Manufacturers: Brigaud, Copalec, Doumer sols, Filloux et espace deco, JS Amenagements, Lifteam, Loison, SNRB, STTS, Sarmates
Category: Gymnasium
Architects: Vincent Baur, Guillaume Colboc, Gaël Le Nouëne
Team: Giuliano Lemma, Clothilde Bonneau
City: Ville Le Plessis-Bouchard
Country: France
Gymnase Marie Marvingt multi-purpose sports facility designed by Ateliers O-S architectes in Le Plessis-Bouchard forms a link between a suburban residential area and the agricultural plain, enhancing connectivity and local activity. The gymnasium occupies a central site position, establishing interaction with the surrounding landscape and adjacent secondary school, and includes a running track, long jump, landscaped parking lot, and janitor’s accommodation. The project’s layout provides clear pedestrian and vehicular access, organizes social spaces through a forecourt, and separates the gymnasium’s operational and visitor flows. The design uses two offset volumes, with a high volume for the sports hall and a low volume for auxiliary functions, accentuated by horizontal wood cladding to create a visual connection to both ground and sky. Gymnase Marie Marvingt emphasizes transparency, rhythm, and contrast between opacity and openness, with a structure that reveals its wooden frame and transforms visually between day and night.
The gymnasium construction project at Le Plessis-Bouchard in Val d’Oise is situated between a suburban neighborhood and an agricultural plain. The development is combined with the construction of a secondary school located opposite the site. The setting reflects the typical character of the Greater Paris region, positioned between village and countryside. The new multi-purpose facility is designed to remain open to the surrounding area, engaging with its context through an interplay of visibility and co-visibility with the outside environment. The project occupies a large plot of land, which accommodates the gymnasium, a running track, a long jump area, and a spacious landscaped parking lot. The site itself sits at the edge of both residential and farmland zones. Marie Sklodowska Curie secondary school is located to the north of the site. The gymnasium building is placed on the northern boundary of the plot. To the right of this boundary facade, a layer of vegetation within the grassy strip between the sidewalk and the site offers separation and protection for the facility.
The gymnasium holds a central position within the site. A parking area for vehicles and a two-wheeler shelter with a garbage room are located to the east of the gymnasium. A vegetated zone to the west has been reserved for the future expansion of the facility. The running tracks and long jump are positioned along the southern boundary of the plot. The project includes four main program elements: construction of the gymnasium, construction of janitor’s accommodation, creation of a landscaped parking lot, and installation of running tracks and a long jump area. Pedestrian access is provided from the newly constructed road that serves both the college and the gymnasium, leading directly to the college forecourt across the road. A tree-lined walkway brings pedestrians to the facility, ending at a forecourt. The forecourt offers seating, serves as a social space, and acts as a transition between the exterior and the gymnasium. Dedicated outdoor access from the forecourt leads to the running tracks and long-jump area. The forecourt functions as the connecting element between the various entities on the site. The janitor’s accommodation is situated within the gymnasium’s built-up area and can be reached via a dedicated pedestrian walkway. This accommodation faces east and features overhead lighting in both the living room and kitchen.
The parking lot on the eastern side of the plot is accessible to pedestrians from the forecourt and by a footpath that connects to the new road. Vehicles reach the parking lot from the northeast corner of the plot, using the new road, with separate entrance and exit lanes. The parking area provides 40 spaces, including 2 spaces designated for people with reduced mobility. Trees are planted throughout the parking lot, which operates as a loop along a one-way street. A rainwater retention basin is planned beneath the parking area. The sports hall faces the rue du collège, allowing views of athletes from the street and activating the street frontage and the gymnasium’s ground floor, creating a more open and inviting neighborhood facility. The gymnasium consists of two distinct volumes: a high volume that contains the sports hall, and a low volume that houses all the spaces necessary for the gymnasium’s operations, such as changing rooms, sanitary facilities, technical rooms, storage rooms, and the janitor’s lodge and accommodation.
The high and low volumes are offset from one another, establishing a dynamic relationship between the facades. The sense of movement and rhythm is highlighted by horizontal wood cladding, which appears thicker and denser on the lower volume to give the building stability and a solid foundation. This lower register grounds the project, while the cladding of the upper volume creates a visual connection to the sky. The gymnasium is designed on a single level. Entry from the forecourt leads into a hall where visitors can choose either the route to the sports locker rooms or to the bleachers from the main circulation area. This hall also provides access to the janitor’s lodge and public toilets. The south-facing corridor to the changing rooms is visible from the entrance hall, features extensive glazing, and includes blinds to manage solar gain. Circulation paths for athletes and visitors are distinctly organized and separated.
A measured use of transparency allows the new facility to function as a window to the city and landscape, offering views of interior activities from the outside and, most importantly, framing the landscape as if through a window. The project is defined by contrast, alternating between lightness and solidity, light and dark, transparency and opacity, and emptiness and fullness. During daylight hours, the facility presents an opaque character and reinforces a sense of unity. After sunset, the building acts as a lantern, revealing the structure’s volume through its openings. The wooden structural elements remain fully visible and are emphasized in the sports hall, where beams that follow the roof profile visually lift the hall from the perspective of visitors seated in the bleachers.
Project Gallery
Project Location
Address: Le Plessis-Bouchard, 95130 Val-d’Oise, France
Location is for general reference and may represent a city or country, not necessarily a precise address.
Featured originally on Architecture Réseau and curated for Architecture Lab readers.
