Paris Longchamp Racecourse
París FR
Dominique Perrault
2017
Type
Sports
Tags
spaces of encounter
Visitability
Allowed
Description
The renewal of the Longchamp racecourse should ensure that it maintains its place in respect both of the Grand Paris attractions and on the international scene as of the world’s major racecourses.Such an ambitious goal must be guided not only by an emblematic architectural project that can be adapted to future needs, but also a landscape project that transfigures the area, highlighting the built existing legacy, the historical tradition of the racecourse, and especially the green heritage of the Bois de Boulogne.The race for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is the highpoint in the life of the racecourse. Therefore, the main challenge of this project is for it to be able to better host this event, which draws up to 60,000 spectators, under exceptional conditions, while also welcoming a much smaller crowd of approximately 10,000 spectators on ordinary racing days. This is why the project demolishes all the stands dating from the 1960s and proposes to replace them with only one stand, which is both more compact and more functional. Buildings housing support services for the horse races, which are currently scattered around the site, also will be sympathetically demolished and rebuilt in the form of pavilions. Finally, the historic buildings of the racecourse are renovated.The proposed architecture of the new stand is to imitate motion, like a galloping horse. A slight overhang orients the interplay between the superimposed stands toward the finish line. But this gap on the racecourse side creates stands that overlook the course, while on the side of the parade ring; a balcony stand form is appreciated. The architectural concept is one of transparent “shelves”, with neither front nor back, enabling spectators to go back and forth moving from a view over the stables to a view over the racecourse. This fluid architecture allows the landscape to passé through it. Surrounded and hidden in nature, the New Longchamp revives the charm of garden parties of the past, of promenades in the woods and the poetry of the Bagatelle gardens, while also offering comfort for all types of public and an effective and efficient facility for all the punters.This project for the New Longchamp will become an iconic environmental facility for the future of its kind and thus meet the objectives of the climate plan developed by the city of Paris.(Description provided by the architects)