(Ph. © Clément Guillaume)

In the 20th arrondissement of Paris – one of the capital’s poorest districts – a new sports centre named after the boxer Angelique Duchemin was inaugurated on 16 November 2024 in an area nestled between tall social housing buildings and a pedestrian alley known for its intensive wall graffiti.

After four years of construction work, the new sports centre takes the place of the T.E.P. Amandiers, an open area formerly used for sports activities, which has been readapted according to the needs expressed by the residents.

The edge flanking the pedestrian alley is bordered by a 45-metre-long wall, which still offers itself as a support for spontaneous street art interventions. A new volume rises above the masonry wall, to house the dojo (a room intended for martial arts), the weight room and the community rooms.

The rest of the area is occupied by four playgrounds, two of which are covered by a lightweight structure, and as a whole is intended to reconcile the domestic dimension of the older urban fabric with the imposing silhouettes of social housing. The light tones of the volumes and fences painted white isolate themselves from the surrounding colour scheme, giving the complex a distinctive character.

The ‘solid’ volume is enveloped in a white metal shell, which at the back expands with a volumetrically larger body in translucent polycarbonate intended to house the two indoor courts. ‘Despite its radically simple geometry and evidently inexpensive materials,’ say the designers, ’the sports centre is concerned with producing transparency effects and material relationships that enrich the spatial quality and usability of this essential programme for the neighbourhood’.

In fact, the project’s priority is oriented towards socio-economic aspects rather than aesthetic research for its own sake.

From the project report, we read that ‘in a clear hierarchy of use with respect to space, the building is made of raw, durable materials: concrete block partition walls, recycled aluminium curtain walls, ventilation ducts and acoustic baffles. Sheltered by a metal structure, white on the outside and dark blue on the inside, it recalls the importance of defining an architecture without containers, in which the separation between what it covers and what it occupies is fundamental. Simply clad with ribbed panels that follow the mass of the envelope, the building is organised in such a way as to ensure fluid accessibility and use, while maintaining control of flows’.

In the dojo hall, on the upper floor, where the dark blue colour prevails, consistent with the need for concentration required for martial arts, the windows and doors that run flush with the floor create a solemn atmosphere that emphasises the importance of the floor in combat sports and avoids visual glare for the athletes. This grazing light, combined with the painting of all structural and technical elements, conceals the ventilation and heating systems without the need to cover the space with a false ceiling, thus saving costs and increasing the ceiling height.

On the ground floor, on the other hand, the various areas (boxing hall, community space, changing rooms and annexes) are flooded with light thanks to the thoughtful use of concrete blocks, which give this industrial material an unprecedented quality thanks to the attention paid to their joints and the refined design of the visible networks, from ventilation ducts to light switches. The interior architecture demonstrates that a considered conception of the ‘bare minimum’ can create a rich environment.

We conclude the description with the designers’ remarks. ‘The Angélique Duchemin sports centre illustrates the conviction that simplicity, the bare minimum and economy of design are as much architectural positions as instruments of social dialogue. Where austerity is achieved through subtraction, here sobriety is achieved through multiplication: a wall that is both structure and finishing work, a fence that doubles a volume, an industrial material that reveals itself through its relationship with light, making the whole more generous in its uses’.

Angélique Duchemin

Angélique Duchemin, born on 26 June 1991 in Perpignan, became double French and European boxing champion in December 2015 and WBF world champion in May 2017 in Royan in the featherweight category against European runner-up Erika Rousseau. Her sporting record was 14 wins, including three before the limit, and no defeats.

She died of a probable pulmonary embolism, following a heart attack during training, on 29 August 2017 at Perpignan hospital.