2012

SPORTS HALL

Rouen, France

Client: La Crea

Site area: 31,500 m2

Built area: 17,000 m2

Too often sports facilities are closed, hostile to the city. Their out-of-scale size, their parking area, their need for accessibility and guarding make them watertight, inert objects. Dominique’s project proposes, contrary to the idea of ​​enclosure, an open, urban device, where the fever generated by sport can be expressed outside, on the steps forming a platform on the spectacle of the city. For the interior fittings and the signage, I tried to take advantage of the partnership concluded with Ferrero France for the naming of the stadium (Kindarena, in reference to the famous chocolate brand whose factories are located in Normandy) by playing on the colors of the sponsor to warm up the interiors of the Sports Palace. It is not a question of declining here and there the logo or the name of the sponsor, but of confusing what concerns branding, signage, and the layout and qualities of the space. Thus, what was initially a constraint (the group’s charter and logotype) has become an element qualifying the work. The orange-red is available on the directional signs, walls, furniture and seats, contrasting with the cold rigor of the raw concrete. The lighting also contributes to the clarity and warmth of the interior spaces.