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Strasbourg CREPS
Strasbourg CREPS
Strasbourg, France
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Other Projects by Antonelli + Herry Architectes
Strasbourg CREPS
Strasbourg, France
Type
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2023
SIZE
10,000 sqft - 25,000 sqft
BUDGET
$1M - 5M
It was during the social and educational rebuilding at the dawn of the post-war Reconstruction that the Centres de Ressources, d'Expertise et de Performance Sportive (Resource, Expertise, and Sports Performance Centers) were born. The CREPS form a network of 17 distinctive public facilities where pedagogy, performance, and, at times, architecture converge. Their theoretical origins trace back to 1939 under Léo Lagrange, but they were reestablished and fully developed at the Liberation.
These facilities were part of a national policy aimed at structuring physical and sports education while supporting the broader democratization of sporting practice. Starting in the 1960s, the French state pursued a policy of constructive standardization, favoring architecture that was economical, replicable, and high-performing. The Halles Jossermoz emerged from this effort, forming a catalogue of standard models developed by the eponymous industrial manufacturer. These prefabricated structures combined steel and glued laminated timber to create vast, column-free volumes suited to indoor athletics.
The precise design of the hall was entrusted to André Wogenscky, a collaborator of Le Corbusier, whose constructive rationality, modularity, and structural legibility he carried forward. He applied to these halls a modernist approach reconciling function and economy with a certain formal plasticity. The 23 halls produced through this process left a lasting mark on the French sporting landscape and were integrated into CREPS facilities, including the one in Strasbourg. Some are protected as heritage sites, others have been forgotten, and some have undergone heritage-led renovations—yet the subject of Wogenscky-Jossermoz and its impact on French territory has never been theorized within the history of architecture.
Since the 1960s, the Strasbourg center has housed a hall measuring 65 by 40 meters, whose constructive characteristics identify it as an HJ2—Halle Jossermoz No. 2.
When work began on the Strasbourg CREPS, heritage considerations were not initially recognized as a defining issue of the project. The operation was framed instead around correcting thermal deficiencies, summer overheating, and the general obsolescence of a facility designed to outdated standards. Yet the need for an architectural compromise gradually became apparent. How could the building be modernized without erasing such a singular piece of sporting heritage? As a testament to an ambitious public policy and an unprecedented historical context, showcasing this post-war legacy through a heritage-conscious renovation became essential.
At the outset of the works, the building also revealed a remarkable structural logic. The hall consists of a steel frame and secondary structure, resting on large curved glued-laminated timber beams. At the rear, these beams are anchored to the ground by massive foundations. At the front, they extend as cantilevers, projecting over the glazed façade and forming a protective canopy. This expressive overhang is supported by slender steel struts, connected to the original foundations by cables buried beneath the sports floor. This system, a testament to rare ingenuity, frees up an impressive expanse of column-free space for activity.
The project called for the introduction of solar and glare protection, absent from the original design. Long, profiled micro-perforated steel blades, fixed to the struts, provide effective solar screening while echoing the hall's metallic vocabulary and lightness. To unify the lighting, the interior of the hall was painted white, creating a deliberate contrast with the red sports flooring. The space evokes the sensation of practicing beneath a clear, luminous sky. Though transformed, the building retains its singularity, carrying its sporting legacy forward to anchor it firmly in the decades to come.
These facilities were part of a national policy aimed at structuring physical and sports education while supporting the broader democratization of sporting practice. Starting in the 1960s, the French state pursued a policy of constructive standardization, favoring architecture that was economical, replicable, and high-performing. The Halles Jossermoz emerged from this effort, forming a catalogue of standard models developed by the eponymous industrial manufacturer. These prefabricated structures combined steel and glued laminated timber to create vast, column-free volumes suited to indoor athletics.
The precise design of the hall was entrusted to André Wogenscky, a collaborator of Le Corbusier, whose constructive rationality, modularity, and structural legibility he carried forward. He applied to these halls a modernist approach reconciling function and economy with a certain formal plasticity. The 23 halls produced through this process left a lasting mark on the French sporting landscape and were integrated into CREPS facilities, including the one in Strasbourg. Some are protected as heritage sites, others have been forgotten, and some have undergone heritage-led renovations—yet the subject of Wogenscky-Jossermoz and its impact on French territory has never been theorized within the history of architecture.
Since the 1960s, the Strasbourg center has housed a hall measuring 65 by 40 meters, whose constructive characteristics identify it as an HJ2—Halle Jossermoz No. 2.
When work began on the Strasbourg CREPS, heritage considerations were not initially recognized as a defining issue of the project. The operation was framed instead around correcting thermal deficiencies, summer overheating, and the general obsolescence of a facility designed to outdated standards. Yet the need for an architectural compromise gradually became apparent. How could the building be modernized without erasing such a singular piece of sporting heritage? As a testament to an ambitious public policy and an unprecedented historical context, showcasing this post-war legacy through a heritage-conscious renovation became essential.
At the outset of the works, the building also revealed a remarkable structural logic. The hall consists of a steel frame and secondary structure, resting on large curved glued-laminated timber beams. At the rear, these beams are anchored to the ground by massive foundations. At the front, they extend as cantilevers, projecting over the glazed façade and forming a protective canopy. This expressive overhang is supported by slender steel struts, connected to the original foundations by cables buried beneath the sports floor. This system, a testament to rare ingenuity, frees up an impressive expanse of column-free space for activity.
The project called for the introduction of solar and glare protection, absent from the original design. Long, profiled micro-perforated steel blades, fixed to the struts, provide effective solar screening while echoing the hall's metallic vocabulary and lightness. To unify the lighting, the interior of the hall was painted white, creating a deliberate contrast with the red sports flooring. The space evokes the sensation of practicing beneath a clear, luminous sky. Though transformed, the building retains its singularity, carrying its sporting legacy forward to anchor it firmly in the decades to come.
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