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An interplay of volumes and light reflecting off water give this new swimming complex in the French town a dreamlike, playful quality
Location: Fondettes, France
Completion: 2024
Architect: Dominique Coulon & associés
Client: Tours Metropolis, Val de Loire (T.M.V.L.)
Project Management Assistant: Mission H2O
Photography by Eugeni Pons, courtesy of dominique coulon & associés
Consultants
Site Supervision: Olivier Werner
Site Management: CRX ouest
Economist: E3 Économie
Acoustics: Euro sound project
Landscape: Bruno Kubler
Structural: Batiserf Ingénierie
Electrical and Plumbing: BET Gilbert Jost
Roads and Services: Lollier Ingénierie
Pool Fittings: Myrtha Pools
Centre Aquatique de l’Ô Bleue, a new swimming complex at the entrance to the city of Fondettes, a few miles from Tours in northern France, achieves a harmonious interaction between architecture and landscape. The structure performs the challenging function of signaling its presence while reshaping a setting mainly occupied by residential buildings.
The design of the aquatic center, the work of Dominique Coulon & associés, hinges on internal spaces arranged in rigorously orthogonal patterns within a building envelope marked by curving and angled surfaces.
The building faces a recently constructed traffic circle. With a forced perspective effect, from a distance, its white external walls reflect the line of the horizon with their dreamlike lunar outline. The massing of the building creates an appearance of slenderness and a hypnotic sensation with its curving walls that extend for a hundred meters in the middle of a flat site among fields at the entrance to the city.
Enclosing the outdoor spaces of the complex, these walls project towards the highest point of the volume, where it accommodates the double-height spaces of the large swimming pools. Angled to follow the sloping shape of the walls, the roof has large round skylights to bring light into the interior spaces.
The layout of the swimming pool area is strictly orthogonal, creating a feeling of dynamism. The staggered arrangement of the pools creates a varied and playful circuit – even though the spaces are open, they reveal themselves gradually as you make your way through the area.
Natural light combines with reflections off the water to enhance and amplify the real dimensions of the interior. There are many potential observation points, with extensive transparent glazing offering sweeping views of the landscape. The outdoor areas were designed as open interiors. Plantings on the lawns mark a transition between the building and sports areas that surround it.
The project’s functional program provides for a number of indoor pools, including a 25-meter semi-Olympic pool. Added to these are an outdoor play pool and beach volleyball court. There is also a wellness area – with a sauna, hammam, jacuzzi, and Turkish bath – that extends outside into a sunbathing space.
The overall project achieves a playful, dreamlike quality. Surrounding people with ergonomic, soothing shapes, the more private areas resemble wellness rooms.
