Eaulistic #2 Aquatic Centre

Project overview:

Reducing investment costs while improving the user experience necessarily requires reallocating expenditure. We have therefore chosen to focus our research on the very purpose of such a facility: learning to swim, the connection with water, the pleasure of swimming and of relaxing.

The strong, central element of the aquatic centre is the pool hall.

We picture this space as bright, warm, open to the outside — and even continuous with the surrounding green spaces and landscape.

This hall must be designed to consume as little energy as possible.

Our expertise in designing passive and self-sufficient buildings led us to explore the field of bioclimatic greenhouses. Successfully used in highly demanding fields of research and aqua-leisure spaces, they bring obvious constructive and energy-related intelligence. Our thermal modelling shows that mechanical ventilation could be avoided over several periods of the year, generating significant energy savings.

The greenhouse construction system ensures great durability through its simplicity and reduced use of materials and contractors. Its maintenance will be guaranteed through a service contract.

Our constructive approach is not limited to the greenhouse. It opens up reflection on the proper use of your investment expenditure. It is time to ask the right questions and choose to invest in sustainable solutions that generate operating-cost savings.

Why continue to spend so much on basements and foundations?

Costly works, especially on a site with high hydrological risk.

Works often poorly perceived by taxpayers because they weigh heavily on the financial balance.

The right solution on your site is to position the building above the ground and to provide technical access through structural voids. A simple, logical and economical solution. It also offers a major ecological advantage, as it limits the massive use of concrete — which is responsible for a significant share of greenhouse-gas emissions — and avoids the geological disturbances caused by site excavations.

In keeping with this new constructive approach, we propose to build the ancillary spaces (reception, changing rooms, offices, etc.) using dry construction. Also called off-site construction, it allows us to:

anticipate and master construction costs: no more bad surprises, thanks to the BIM digital model and validations during fabrication;

• guarantee high thermal and energy performance,
• halve construction lead times,
• significantly reduce site nuisances,
• offer a comprehensive ecological approach through the use of biosourced materials.

Because it is urgent and obvious that we must today change our environmental approach. The choice of materials, techniques and energy uses must be made with awareness of our ecological footprint.

We therefore propose a biological water treatment, in compliance with the decree published in April 2019 and already implemented in several other public aquatic centres in France. For compliance purposes, we also studied and costed the ozone solution requested in the brief, which has the drawbacks of high energy consumption and the use of toxic products.

This chlorine-free water treatment, which we propose, has several advantages:

• complete absence of chloramines: toxic in the air, requiring over-ventilation, and corrosive to structures and equipment;
• possible reuse of biological water — for irrigation, for example — and significant reduction of water consumption;
• high health quality: no odours, and gentle water for all bathers, particularly the most vulnerable (children and the elderly).

Our proposal for your future aquatic centre therefore brings together the strengths of a new comprehensive approach — frugal, economical and virtuous:

• through a new bioclimatic design that is reliable and high-performing,
• through a sound, durable and economical constructive approach,
• through the creation of healthy and ecological aquatic living spaces.

The architecture and image of the building flow naturally from this state of mind: respectful of the site, of the living world, and of the inhabitants of the territory.