Pavi­lion or club­house?

With the expan­sion of the tennis club and the cons­truc­tion of the “Salle Maurice Darbellay”, the southern French muni­ci­pa­lity of Coudoux has realized a remar­kable project that convin­cingly combines archi­tec­ture, sustaina­bi­lity and regio­na­lity. Desi­gned by Atelier Régis Roudil, the result is an under­stated, elegant timber cons­truc­tion that blends in sensi­tively with its surroun­dings and can be used for a variety of purposes.

The Salle Maurice Darbellay is located on the south-western edge of Coudoux, a French muni­ci­pa­lity with 3,700 inha­bi­tants in the Bouches-du-Rhône depart­ment in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. The buil­ding is the new center of a small sports park with five tennis courts, a hard court and a BMX track. It is located at the end of a resi­den­tial area and is bordered to the north and south by old umbrella pines. Thanks to its exposed loca­tion and open design, the buil­ding has the effect of a covered outdoor space that offers protec­tion from the sun and rain and at the same time streng­thens the connec­tion to the surroun­ding nature.

Indoors or outdoors

The Salle Maurice Darbellay was built next to the exis­ting club­house and is based on a simple but well thought-out prin­ciple: four wooden struc­tures – known as “plots” – form the struc­tural corner­stones of a rectan­gular floor plan. These support a recessed roof cons­truc­tion made of glulam.

A freely acces­sible terrace forms the recessed southern end towards the tennis courts.

The hall itself is free of supports, crea­ting a gene­rous, flexible space. Large, folding sliding doors on the north and south sides allow complete opening to the outside. Inte­rior and exte­rior space have a lot in common here.

Wood and produc­tion

The choice of mate­rials is parti­cu­larly important: Pin d’Alep (Aleppo pine) was used throug­hout for the cons­truc­tion, façade and inte­rior design – a local wood that had long disap­peared from the cons­truc­tion industry. This project revives a regional value chain: the wood comes from surroun­ding forests and was processed in the region.

The walls consist of wooden frames with wood fiber insu­la­tion, the roof cons­truc­tion of prefa­bri­cated wooden cassette elements. The façade was clad with pre-greyed wood in cover strip form­work. The inte­rior furni­ture such as the counter and shelves are also made of Aleppo pine.

The struc­ture rests on a concrete base that is 40 cm above the ground – enough to serve as seating at the edge of the pitch. The adjoi­ning terraces and ramps are also made of exposed concrete and are bordered by natural stone walls made of Vers-Pont-du-Gard.

Archi­tec­ture and loca­tion

The project is a fine example of archi­tec­ture that is in dialog with its loca­tion. It follows the prin­ciple of mate­rial reduc­tion, uses local resources and shows how public buil­dings in rural contexts can be imple­mented in a way that is ambi­tious in terms of design and at the same time func­tional, econo­mical and ecolo­gi­cally respon­sible.

With the “Salle Maurice Darbellay”, Coudoux has gained a new place for sport, meetings and commu­nity – and at the same time a strong archi­tec­tural state­ment for contem­po­rary, sustainable cons­truc­tion in wood.

History

The Holder­feld open-air hall was opened in June 2024, but its history goes back to 2015. It was then that an expert report first docu­mented the need for a covered outdoor playing area for the Geschwister-Scholl School and the surroun­ding clubs. After a long plan­ning phase, budget discus­sions and chal­lenges due to the diffi­cult buil­ding ground, the tende­ring process did not start until spring 2023.

All’s well that ends well: the school and clubs now have an attrac­tive hall with playing field dimen­sions of 22 x 45 meters, which can be divided into a three-court hall using nets. This means that the Holder­feld open-air hall can be used for hand­ball, basket­ball and volley­ball on three courts as well as badminton on nine courts – also thanks to the clear height of at least 5.5 meters.

SMC2 is respon­sible for the plan­ning and cons­truc­tion of the hall.

Baffle wall

The roof cons­truc­tion was desi­gned as a pitched roof, and a trape­zo­idal steel sheet with anti-conden­sa­tion fleece on the under­side was chosen as the roof cove­ring. Stadt­werke Tübingen installed a photo­vol­taic system on the entire roof surface. Thanks to the gene­ra­tion of solar power, the Holder­feld open-air hall thus becomes an energy-plus buil­ding: it produces more energy than it consumes.

Another special feature of the hall is the impact wall cons­truc­tion in accordance with DIN 18032, which was installed up to a wall height of 2.5 m, offers a force reduc­tion of 60 % and fulfills the acci­dent preven­tion regu­la­tions for school sports halls – the first of its kind.

Boom

Above the baffle wall, the open-air hall is clad with a micro-perfo­rated façade membrane. The result is an enclosed hall space with visual contact with the surroun­ding gree­nery, from which no balls can fly out and no objects or animals can fly in. Thanks to the membrane, however, the supply of fresh air – another major advan­tage of the open-air hall buil­ding type – is main­tained.

Spea­king of the type of buil­ding: the Holder­feld open-air hall is not only a versa­tile sports faci­lity for school and club sports that can be used all year round in any weather, it also enri­ches the deve­lo­p­ment of the still booming open-air halls.

Move­ment

So the ques­tion is not whether local autho­ri­ties, clubs etc. can afford a sports hall. The ques­tion is whether they can afford not to have one. An open-air hall brings move­ment into commu­nity life – quickly, easily and sustain­ably.

A McArena costs only a frac­tion of a tradi­tional sports hall. Depen­ding on the size, invest­ments start at less than 400,000 euros. This opens up comple­tely new possi­bi­li­ties for smaller towns, rural regions, city districts or social insti­tu­tions that want to create a high-quality, weather­proof and low-main­ten­ance sports faci­lity on a limited budget.

Each of these halls is a fully-fledged, covered sports hall with a sports floor, peri­meter board system, LED flood­lights, digital access system and optional music and equip­ment box. The high­light lies in the flexi­bi­lity: diffe­rent sizes and types allow adapt­a­tion to almost any area and use – be it in the school play­ground, as an addi­tion to the club grounds or as an exer­cise-promo­ting meeting point in the neigh­bor­hood.

More about buil­ding.

Sustaina­bi­lity

Anyone plan­ning a sports hall today is also thin­king about future gene­ra­tions of users, future energy consump­tion and the ecolo­gical foot­print of each indi­vi­dual compo­nent.

Local autho­ri­ties, clubs and spon­sors are under immense pres­sure today: rising energy costs, incre­asing climate protec­tion requi­re­ments, tight budgets and the desire not to build new infra­struc­ture at the expense of the envi­ron­ment. Tradi­tional gyms with their massive cons­truc­tion, complex tech­no­logy and high energy requi­re­ments seem like relics from another era.

In contrast, open-air halls made of galva­nized steel with a recy­cled content of over 87% are sustainable. This cons­truc­tion method not only reduces CO₂ in produc­tion, but also in trans­por­ta­tion and foun­da­tions. It allows for shorter cons­truc­tion times, less impact on the envi­ron­ment and maximum flexi­bi­lity.

You can find out more about sustaina­bi­lity here.

From stock

The heart of every McArena is its intel­li­gent opera­tion: digital control, light only when in use, auto­matic access systems and an AI-supported camera system for effi­ci­ency moni­to­ring. There are also optional photo­vol­taic modules, rain­water harve­s­ting cisterns and green roofs. These are all modules that make the halls CO₂-neutral step by step.

But sustaina­bi­lity means more than just tech­no­logy. It is an atti­tude. A hall that is used jointly – by schools, clubs, leisure groups and events – saves dupli­cate invest­ments, reduces distances, promotes social inte­gra­tion and revi­ta­lizes entire neigh­bour­hoods.

And it lasts. Because steel is not only recy­clable, but also extre­mely durable. The halls are desi­gned to last for decades, with minimal main­ten­ance requi­re­ments and clearly calculable opera­ting costs. The result is a space for move­ment that really lasts.

Refe­rences on the topic can be found here.