When Anatole Kopp wasn’t off designing schools in Algeria for Ahmed Ben Bella, lecturing about social housing in Cuba, or photographing old Constructivist buildings in the Soviet Union, he was ideating beautiful structures in France with his comrades Pierre Chazanoff and Lucien Metrich.
Today, one of their feats—the Grande Nef de l’Île-des-Vannes sports complex—has been gloriously restored by Chatillon Architectes ahead the 2024 Paris Olympics to serve as a training facility.
Chatillon Architectes, a local office, was tasked with adapting the building after it was closed in 2018 due to decay and accessibility issues. SOLIDEO, the French public sector organization responsible for financing, supervising, and delivering Olympics facilities, was also a development partner.
The $13.5 million renovation entailed fully restoring the structure’s concrete shell, coming up with contemporary energy solutions to improve thermal performance, important accessibility upgrades, and fitting in new acoustic panels, wood flooring, and lighting fixtures.
“I don’t know of other buildings built exactly like this one,” said architect Francois Chatillon after the renovation. “You have to put a lot of energy and imagination to restore this kind of building, there are no rules [for this architecture]. Having the opportunity to dive into this project, to understand its design and be able to revitalize, modernize and bring this astonishing structure back into use for a new generation has been a fantastic process to be a part of.”
Paris’s Ceinture Rouge: Then and Now
Grande Nef de l’Île-des-Vannes has lived many lives. When it opened in 1971, it was one of the largest venues in all of Paris. Its form recalls similar parabolic buildings in the GDR by Ulrich Müther, or perhaps Kresge Auditorium by Eero Saarinen in Massachusetts.
The 32,000-square-foot building has a mindboggling floor-to-ceiling height of 280 feet. It’s 1,050 feet long and 550 feet wide. Its soaring parabolic roof was designed by Kopp, Chazanoff, and Metrich to mimic the site’s river landscape. The building can accommodate 5,000 spectators and has hosted concerts by Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, and Queen.
The iconic structure is located in L’Île-Saint-Denis, a commune that sits within Paris’s ceinture rouge, or “red belt.” L’Île-Saint-Denis has long been a stronghold for the French Communist Party, joining other communes like Montreuil and La Courneuve in their party affiliation.
Due to its location, Grande Nef de l’Île-des-Vannes was also the site of many French Communist Party congresses; supplementing Oscar Niemeyer’s French Communist Party Headquarters in Paris’s 19th arrondissement. (Anatole Kopp, Pierre Chazanoff, and Lucien Metrich were all card carrying Communists, as was Niemeyer.)
But socialists, trapeze artists, and Bruce Springsteen eventually vacated the building. It fell into disrepair in the 1990s and what stood in its place for many years was a sad ghost of its former self. In 2007, Grande Nef de l’Île-des-Vannes was listed as a Historic Monument by the French Ministry of Culture. Chatillon Architectes was brought onto restore it in 2020.
The most noticeable upgrade by Chatillon Architectes took place on the exterior: Designers helped renovate the translucent polycarbonate facade by creating a new double-skin insulated cladding that ameliorates efficiency and performance while maintaining aesthetic integrity, the architects shared.
After the Olympics are over, the building will become an athletic and cultural center for the local community of Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine.
