GRAND STADIUM
MELUN-SÉNART
FRANCE, 1993
SPORT
PR–067
The presence or absence of the stadium is the urban question, akin to “squaring the circle,” that needs to be resolved.
PROGRAM
Large stadium project designed to host the 1998 FIFA World Cup. It includes a main arena with 85,000 seats, a training stadium, a 12,000-space parking lot, and all urban and landscaping developments in the surrounding area.
DETAIL
Situation
Melun-Sénart, France
Year
1993
Status
Contest, winning project
Site area
100 ha
Project management
State and new town of Melun-Sénart
Project implementation
Dominique Perrault, architect, urbanist
Design offices
Eiffage, S.A.E.-S.P.I.E
DESCRIPTION
The presence of a major sports facility, recognized nationally and internationally, brings media coverage to Melun-Sénart and contributes to its existence and recognition in the landscape of regional development. However, the absence of this same facility, when empty, sterilizes a vast central space in the heart of the city, surrounded by a huge array of parking lots.
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The urban planning response must navigate a strange oscillation between desire and non-desire, between the acceptable and the unacceptable. The proposed response is therefore part of a broad landscape approach, as a place of reconciliation between Nature and the City, and as the foundation of an identity specific to Melun-Sénart. The project is thus developed through evolving scenarios, firmly rooted in the initial program, but capable of transforming, even transfiguring, themselves in the more distant future. It is not just a question of hosting an event, but of building a sustainable, inhabited, and appropriable urban landscape that will outlive the stadium’s heyday.
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