Archipel Aquatic Center – Cité de l’Eau – Agde

Agde, France
Client
Communauté d'agglomération Herault Méditerranée
Architect
Luc Demolombe
Area
6 200 m²
Year
2012
Our services
Timber Structure Design

With its audacious geometric forms, the aquatic center is framed by an arched roof made of wood and steel. It is covered by translucent ETFE cushions for the central nave, as well as by a steel and PVC membrane roof over the fixed side-wings. The timber roof is made up of douglas fir glu-lam struts, a natural service class three wood, well-adapted, in its untreated state, to humid environments. This wood also allows for the complex forms of the architect’s project. The particularity of this project is in its mobile wings; two segments of the roof structure in a three dimensional tubular steel framework, resting on cushions of air and opening to give direct access to the beaches from the inside. The opening mechanism is made from a system of drive rollers sliding on a fixed curved beam at the top of the wing.

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