Compared to that of Bron complex, the massing of this gymnasium could be described as "wise". It is also recognized as a cohesive element to the neighborhood.

Signed by Nicolas Crégut and Laurent Duport, the gymnasium “Triangle Great Camargue” in Nimes, has a strictly orthogonal volume. A double constraint explains this choice for a building that houses an indoor arena with regulatory dimensions (22 x 44 m), changing rooms, a porter's lodge, a ping-pong space of 142 sqm and storage rooms. On the one hand, it was to follow a group of adjacent equipment of quality: the stadium of Costières and the sports hall of Parnassus. The durability was therefore necessary, and with it the concrete. On the other hand, the field is further biased. The building was an opportunity to redefine the neighborhood.

Its whiteness, simple massing, and its proximity to the city center, confer to this gymnasium a function of entrance point in the city. Its location and orientation were therefore considered such as motors of design elements. The idea was to position the gymnasium on one of the corners of the triangular plot, so as to enhance green spaces, and in the axis of the road, to valorize the main facade. The building is constructed on a plinth of 80 cm height underside of floor to avoid flooding, highlighted with a gray tint. Access is otherwise dramatized, at least marked by the idea of an architectural progression. Four steps of rough concrete offer a sort of platform to small canopy supported by a round pillar, in continuity of the roof of the lower part. A ramp is a shift along the wall.

The west facade shows, in background, the large volume of the sports hall, dressed in white concrete precast panels, just striped by a headband dressed with solar protection in bronze color. Overhang, the changing rooms form a flat block of poured concrete coated white, barred also with striped ribbon windows shading blades. The simplicity of the composition borders to abstraction.

South side, the gable end offers to the sight its wall very pure design, very simple: six precast concrete panels perfectly ordered; two panels of 11 x 3.5 m placed in parapet; four panels 6 x 3.5 m surrounding the bay window also dressed with shading. The contrast of off-white and bronze evokes an abstract painting. Only the entrance canopy breaks, by its volume, the solemnity.

Inside, the structure of the sports hall is made of raw concrete beams making trusses, hinged on concrete posts. All these elements, prefabricated, allowed a considerable time saving. The roof is steel decks. The framework of the ping-pong room consists of concrete walls and a metal frame resting on consoles made in the wall, the cover in steel decks do not require the installation of posts for support.

But it is mostly its aesthetic qualities that have made the success of the building from its users.

Text: Clotilde FOUSSARD / Modern Building # 118.