France

The Nîmes Sports Centre is a new distinctive addition to the city’s urbanscape, with bold architecture bringing together sleek design, sustainability and functionality. Developed by Ateliers A+, this ambitious project materialises an innovative approach to urban design and bioclimatic construction. Home to 18 sport clubs, 11 disciplines and 5 halls for a total capacity of 2,500, the facility has become a new hub of activity and animation for the city.

The facility includes:

One 1,100-sqm multi-purpose hall + 210 tiered seats for sports including: handball, basketball, volleyball, climbing;

One 1,400-sqm artistic gymnastics hall & rhythmic gymnastics hall (+700 sqm for rhythmic gymnastics) + 482 tiered seats;

One 700-sqm fencing hall.

Central to this design are 2,500 sqm of panels mounted with Tenseo Frontside 381, a tensile architecture solution manufactured by Serge Ferrari Group. Chosen for both its aesthetic and technical qualities, this high-performance mesh fabric complements harmoniously the design, while contributing towards the project’s environmental goals.

But that’s not all. The structure provided the artist Alain Clément with a perfect blank canvas for his largest original artwork yet. Inspired by the history of Nîmes and the building’s design, his contribution elevates the Sports Centre, making the project a unique fusion of art and architecture.

Sustainable Contemporary Architecture Takes Cue From City’s Textile Heritage

The Nîmes Sports Centre is much more than a mere sports complex. This iconic project delivered by Ateliers A+ elegantly combines modernity, sustainability and respect for the local heritage. Designed specifically to meet the different needs of the various disciplines it would host, the new facility has become a major hub of activity and animation for the city.

The architecture features a distinctive organic, flowing design inspired by the long textile heritage of Nîmes. But the curved lines of the tensile envelope shaped to evoke draped fabric are not just for aesthetic effect: they serve to welcome the local community and invite them to organically enter the building, making it more accessible and enhancing connectivity with the surrounding public realm. Within those architectural folds, patches of greenery spring up, bringing an airy feel to the design and contributing to the building’s bioclimatic performance.

Inside, wood is ubiquitous, communicating a sense of warmth, modernity and commitment to sustainability. Used for the structure, the ceilings, the acoustic walls and the fittings, the material epitomises the project’s low-carbon philosophy, paired with an innovative energy performance strategy. Geothermic, photovoltaic and passive ventilation systems have been discreetly integrated into the design, but they are in fact essential to its energy efficiency.

Come night fall, the building puts on a spectacular display. The tensile facade lights up like a constellation, turning the complex into a luminous vessel floating in the night. The design symbolises not only victory in sports, but also architectural innovation and local pride.

With its distinct architectural approach, thoughtful urban integration and bioclimatic solutions, the Nîmes Sports Centre is an exemplar of sustainable public amenities. It represents a major step forward for the city, for the benefit of both sport practitioners and the public at large, offering them a modern, welcoming facility that blends harmoniously with its context.

The Birth of a Unique Architectural Identity:

From the early design stages, the Nîmes Sports Centre project has been driven by a strong vision: develop a contemporary architectural design to celebrate the city’s textile heritage. Originally, the ‘second skin’ that wrapped around the building was supposed to consist of perforated aluminium panels to create a weaving pattern reminiscent of the denim fabric first manufactured in 16^th-century Nîmes, the birthplace of the now-famous jeans.

The initial idea was to develop a dynamic envelope that suggested movement, rippling in and out, with openings revealing patches of greenery, and a section that rose to project over the terrace. However, as research progressed, the team started looking into different materials to effectively reproduce the design’s elegant curves. In the end, they identified Serge Ferrari Group’s Tenseo Frontside 381 as the obvious choice.

This flexible and innovative material offers not only the necessary pliability to recreate complex curvatures, but also the possibility to explore new shapes and opportunities for artistic expression. Tenseo Frontside 381 opened up an infinite range of creative possibilities to bring to life the team’s architectural vision of a harmonious, flowing design with a strong visual impact.

To accentuate the building’s unique identity, the design team chose to push the innovation even further to incorporate an original artwork. The continuous design, stretching across the entire perimeter of the envelope, brings cohesion and strength to the project, giving Nîmes a strong, visual signature, immediately recognisable.

Combining High Performance, Durability and Sustainability for Revolutionary Architecture

Laurent Tournié, Head of Prescription at Serge Ferrari, says: ‘Our patented Précontraint technology allows us to manufacture a fabric that is both light and highly resistant — two important considerations for this project. During the manufacturing process, the fabric is laid flat and kept under constant tension in both directions —warp and weft-wise — to prevent ballooning and minimise elasticity after installation. The result is a fabric that remains perfectly taut, retaining optimal tension throughout its life span. This technological innovation is the perfect answer to the project’s bioclimatic goals.

‘Tenseo Frontside 381’s carbon footprint is significantly less than that of other materials, which reduces the building’s overall weight and environmental impact. Not only is the fabric itself lighter, but it can also be installed on a lighter support structure, which in turn enhances the visual appeal and fluidity of the building’s curves inspired by the city’s rich textile heritage.

‘By relying on Serge Ferrari Group’s expertise, the project has gained not only a high-performance, durable material, but also an environment-friendly solution. This integrated approach has allowed the design team to reconcile aesthetics, function and durability, providing the local community with a welcoming, innovative and sustainable space to practice sports and connect together.’

Artist’s Statement by Alain Clément

‘Gone are the days of geometric stiffness, right angles and standard constructions. A new generation is on the rise, with more personality, creativity and innovation. We have shifted from strict geometric shapes and their hindrances, to the unbridled fantasy of flowing lines and transgressive surprises. This is the spirit in which we developed this project. We needed to be technologically innovative, and to find the strength, momentum and vitality to reflect the sports that would be practiced within the complex.

It was challenging for me to detach my visual expression from the plane surface of the wall and let it take flight in three dimensions. It required countless sketches, models of all scales, printing effects, tests to get the right colour intensity on the mesh in terms of opacity and transparency, and imagination to project brushstrokes to 20 times the human scale, with movements stretching across 190 vertical panels, each 10 metres high. This is what the project needed, the symbol of a large veil stretched in the wind in one single motion and pulling the building forward. Big dancing strokes of Nîmes BLUE, swift and direct slashes of BLACK, and a background in shades of GREY to tie together the composition and bring it to life before your eyes.’

About Ateliers A+

In September 2024, A+Architecture, Arteba, L’Echo and Celsius Environnement joined their identities together to form Ateliers A+. With offices in Montpellier, Nîmes, Toulouse and Paris, Ateliers A+ connects territories and programmes, contexts and aspirations to develop projects all over France and abroad for both public and private clients. Employing today more than 100 collaborators, our multidisciplinary team brings together know-how, experience, curiosity and enthusiasm. For more than 30 years, the practice has shaped collectively and across all scales a shared vision, born of the creative and collective perspective of our eight sectors: architecture, urban planning, landscape design, environment, industrial design, engineering, cost management and construction management.

Project Participants

Project owner: City of Nîmes
Architecture, design, project management, cost planning, engineering, environment: Ateliers A+

FACADE
Artist: Alain Clément
Membrane: Tenseo Frontside 381 (2,500 sqm)
Textile envelope engineering: ABACA
Installation and printing: ACS Production
High-definition scan: Hellocom
Structure and construction: Landragin
Photography: Camille Gharbi