Label Architecture

Love pt. II Sports Facilities

Love pt. II Sports Facilities
© Stijn Bollaert

LOVE PT. II SPORTS FACILITIES

Label Architecture

YEAR
2021

PHOTOGRAPHS
Stijn Bollaert

LOCATION
Charleroi, Belgium

CATEGORY
Recreation & Training

Text description provided by architect.

Amidst the green hills surrounding the city of Charleroi lies the sports centre ‘La ferme du Château’. This complex, split in two by a meandering street, comprises two distinct poles.

Love pt. II Sports Facilities
© Stijn Bollaert
Love pt. II Sports Facilities
© Stijn Bollaert
Love pt. II Sports Facilities
© Stijn Bollaert
Love pt. II Sports Facilities
© Stijn Bollaert

The first one - Love pt. I, an old dependency of a castle - houses the administration and overnight accommodation of the centre. A bit higher on the hill, on a plateau backed by the forest and dominating the street, we find the second pole, Love pt. II, which englobes all the sporting facilities.

In an attempt to connect the two poles, we continued the existing topography over the descending street. Supported by a big concrete cylinder, which doubles as a stairway, this concrete table hovers above the road. A circular void offers views from the plateau to the passing cars and cyclists.

Love pt. II Sports Facilities
© Stijn Bollaert
Love pt. II Sports Facilities
© Stijn Bollaert
Love pt. II Sports Facilities
© Stijn Bollaert
Love pt. II Sports Facilities
© Stijn Bollaert
Love pt. II Sports Facilities
© Stijn Bollaert

The existing sports hall was offered an extension by mirroring one of its bays.

These same tactics of mimicking, mirroring, and copying were redeployed for the construction of a second sports hall. This new volume, constructed with wooden columns and beams, is a seemingly copy of its predecessor.

Love pt. II Sports Facilities
© Stijn Bollaert
Love pt. II Sports Facilities
© Stijn Bollaert

Any new elements, such as mirroring windows and the green color of the undulated sheets, were mimicked and added to its existing lookalike.

To intensify this conversation between the new and the old, the original and its copy, exterior façades double the architectural language of their interior counterparts and visa-versa.

Love pt. II Sports Facilities
© Stijn Bollaert
Love pt. II Sports Facilities
© Stijn Bollaert
Love pt. II Sports Facilities
© Stijn Bollaert

Turning around the buildings, one can read a series of sentences or rhymes, as some of the inside facades appear again outside.

This game is subscribed by the artistic intervention of Adrien Tirtiaux, which places different letters on the façades.

Love pt. II Sports Facilities
© Stijn Bollaert
Love pt. II Sports Facilities
© Stijn Bollaert

Rising up from one of the corners of this extension, as if pulled out of the ground, is a small tower encapsulating a climbing hall.

Love pt. II Sports Facilities
© Stijn Bollaert


Love pt. II Sports Facilities
Floor Plan Level 0
Love pt. II Sports Facilities
Floor Plan Level 1
Love pt. II Sports Facilities
Floor Plan Level 1
Love pt. II Sports Facilities
Floor Plan Level 2


Love pt. II Sports Facilities
Axo
Love pt. II Sports Facilities
Sections

Label Architecture
T +32 2 5028995
Label Architecture
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