Restructuring the Périgueux Sport Complex : Francis Rongiéras Stadium
This project concerns the renovation of the Plaine des Sports in Périgueux, centred around the grandstand of the rugby stadium known as Rongieras. This sports esplanade is located along the Isle River, at the foot of the hills overlooking the watercourse, within an alluvial plain that also hosts the SNCF railway station as well as commercial and office buildings.
This location, in a natural depression that frames the Rongieras grandstand from the city to the east and the hills to the west, makes this facility a major landmark in both the urban and landscape setting. The grandstand, positioned as a focal point, in turn offers from its seating tiers or reception areas sweeping views of the vegetated hillsides, the Isle banks, and Saint-Front Cathedral.
Originally built in the 1970s, the grandstand reflects a tradition of sports architecture that celebrates the expression of large reinforced concrete portals supporting elegant tiered seating and long cantilevered beams carrying the roof, projecting dramatically over the stands. This structural concrete architecture, designed on a taut, curvilinear plan, responds to the the Isle River straight banks, appearing to follow their tangent.
Its presence is reinforced by a podium effect, materialised to the west by a landscaped embankment and to the east by a concrete substructure raising the level of the first seats rows. As was common in grandstands of that era, the underside of the seating originally housed vertical circulation, sanitary facilities, locker rooms, and some storage areas, relegating utilities to the “bowels” of the building and treating these spaces in a residual manner.
The renovation aims to clear all vertical circulation from within the structure, revealing the undersides of the seating tiers and making use of these generous volumes, rhythmically framed by the powerful concrete structure, to accommodate locker rooms and reception spaces. Vertical circulation and access walkways are relocated to the exterior, set within a vegetal canopy, designed as a fine, web-like structure following the grandstand’s plan curve.
This architectural composition ultimately seeks to merge landscape and architecture into the reading of a dynamic pathway along the western “voie des stades,” without diminishing the expressive power of the concrete bays. It also evokes the idea of a dreamlike journey through vegetation before arriving at the boxes and seating, from which one can take in the views of the city and basilica above the rugby pitch.
While the podium effect has been preserved and emphasised on the river side through landscaping, on the pitch side the seating tiers now extend right up to the grass, amplifying the sense of anchoring to the playing field.
