Area

Plaine des Sports is located north of Saint-Paul-lès-Dax, a commune in the Landes depart­ment in Nouvelle-Aqui­taine in southwes­tern France. The area along­side the 824 Depart­mental road is known as “Les Pins de Gouail­lard et la Liberté”.

The main access is from Avenue des Lacs via the Chemin du Golf. A country road, that crosses the site, gives access to pede­strians and cyclists, notably from Lac de Christus.

Density

Many ecolo­gical cons­traints throug­hout the entire site had impact on the design by OLGGA Archi­tects and Atelier CAMBIUM, e.g. the presence of protected species such as the false ringlet butterfly coen­on­ympha oedippus and the Euro­pean Nightjar capri­mulgus euro­paeus and the proxi­mity of wetlands and the Gouail­lard stream.

Terraces and envi­ron­ment

Consis­tent with our design intent, planned as “sports terraces”, the playing fields are linked in succes­sive degres­sive steps along a west-east axis. The site slopes down 7m from its north-west high­point.

Outbuil­dings dedi­cated to plant and chan­ging rooms create a second archi­tec­tural focus in the land­scape. Wedged between playing fields #2 and #3, this simple buil­ding is covered with timber sheets that project beyond its gables. These facades act as a refe­rence point within site.

In addi­tion to a Plaine des Sports, the proposal provides a park for open air acti­vi­ties, inha­bited by regional species due to the atten­tion given to the surroun­ding envi­ron­ment.