OSCAR NIEMEYER SPORTS AND CULTURAL CENTRE
Located on the heights of Dieppe, the Oscar Niemeyer Sports and Cultural Centre represents the revival of Val Druel district. Named after the master plan's designer, the project incorporates the natural slope creating a balcony which reveals landscape qualities. Its refined shape accentuates the surroundings, as the pétanque strip terrace and the nearby woods.
The main space offers a seven metres ceiling height and a three-sided view. Inner activities can be seen from the car park and the pedestrian lanes, passers-by can even look through the building. The separation between inside and outside is blurred, the Centre itself provides an alternative walk connecting the lower and higher esplanades.
Design sobriety is balanced by attention to detail and quality of materiality. The project combines raw materials (cast concrete, larch wood, white painted hollow bricks) and produces a kind of preciousness, as witnessed by the oblique line carved in concrete to guide visitors towards the entrance hall, or by circles of light which underline the acroterion at nightfall, reminding curtain folds.
