LEAF Awards 2013 Winner: Leo Lagrange Stadium in Toulon

Public Building of the Year – Sport
archi5, Toulon, France

With the mountains on one side and the Mediterranean Sea on the other, the Léo Lagrange Stadium stands on a site that is limited in space but with limitless views out to sea, and enhances the landscape by providing a breathing space in a relatively dense fabric, a public sphere in harmony with its location. The sports complex is a vast urban park devoted to sporting and fun activities, containing three regional rugby and football pitches, international athletics track and six school playing fields.

A covered public footbridge, which is designed like a jetty, recalls Toulon’s historic ties with the sea. Its aerial architecture makes it seem detached from the ground, hovering above massed vegetation and resembling a huge sailing ship at anchor. It offers a covered, belvedere-like walkway with close-up views of the sport fields and more distant ones of the horizon and Mount Faron.

Drawing its inspiration from the flowing dynamics of sport, the jetty’s textile cover describes flexible, generous movement that matches the spectators’ ‘Mexican waves’ and harmonises with the surrounding landscape. Its form changes incessantly depending upon from where it is viewed. The cover’s fabric, metal and non-reflecting glass captures the subtle colours of natural light while at night the inner-lit textile cover turns into a luminous ribbon, like a wave of light, and gives full expression to the place’s sporting and event functions. Visible from a distance, the jetty provides the region with a new landmark.

Client: Toulon Provence Méditerranée
Size of project: 4,500m²
Cost: Euro 27,9 million

LEAF Awards jury statement On a site with limited space but limitless views of the sea, the design of the new Stadium complements and enhances perception of the local landscape, at the same time emphasising the highly visible quality of a public facility and its centrality as a gathering point and meeting place. It provides a breathing space in a relatively dense fabric, a public sphere in harmony with its location. A complex offering sporting and other recreational activities, it containing three regional rugby and football pitches, international athletics and six school playing fields. We also enjoyed the belvedere-like walkway, like a ship’s landing stage rising up, and treatment of the vast membrane roof.