Gym in Chelles
With their design for a sports facility, the architects reconfigured the central square in Chelles, a city east of Paris. They placed the L-shaped massing between the city hall, secondary school and a former church (now an art centre) in a manner that furnishes the large square with new spatial definition. The three-sided glazing gives the gym the desired loftiness; on the interior surfaces, opaque elements cover the narrow fields of glass. These panels provide solar protection, absorb sound, and minimise thermal losses. The heights of the panels vary; they tilt out for cleaning. The striated facade conceals a simple structural system with steel columns and tapered beams aligned with every ninth panel.
