View of the Saupin project tower in Nantes – Giboire / Lina Ghotmeh â ???? Architecture
- Nantes Métropole and the promoter Giboire want to build a residential tower and a Nordic basin on the site of the Marcel-Saupin stadium.
- A group of residents is opposed to this project while elected environmentalists are asking for a moratorium.
Two years after the surprise announcement of the construction of a Nordic basin in Nantes, the idea is well and truly on the rails. This Friday, the metropolis unveiled the outlines of the major urban project it wishes to carry out on the site of the emblematic Marcel-Saupin stadium, Malakoff-Pré Gauchet district. In place of the old west stand, demolished in 2006, an outdoor heated swimming pool will be delivered by 2024. Right next to it will be built a tower mainly made up of housing, according to the same schedule. Work and marketing should start next year.
The project, led by the Giboire group, aims to “enhance the stadium” but also and above all to respond to two major issues facing the metropolis: real estate pressure and the shortage of swimming pools. For the first subject, the future tower will include 62 housing units (25% of which are affordable), especially for families. On the 16th floor, five “urban lodges” will be set up, while a rooftop bar-restaurant will be installed at the top. Several shops are planned on the ground floor of this building built largely in wood, and parking for residents in the basement.
For the other question, the Nordic basin (six lanes, 50m long) “will complete the offer of municipal swimming pools, and will be accessible at the same price”, confirms Ali Rebouh, sports assistant at the town hall (PS) of Nantes. It will be open all year round and will welcome the general public as well as children from Nantes schools or sports associations, all of which are now cramped. “We will save, in the long term, 40% of energy than for an indoor swimming pool,” adds the elected official, to respond to criticism.
“A lot of worries”
Because for a few weeks, the protest is organized. Several residents, opposed to the project, have just launched a petition to denounce “the disfigurement of the site” and request an “environmental impact study” of the project, for which the building permit is being examined. “We have a lot of concerns: the impact on flora and fauna while we are at the outlet of the Erdre on the Loire, various nuisances, traffic…, details Philippe Meunier, president of the Friends of the Erdre confluence Loire Nantes. We wonder about the interest of a new swimming pool, whereas that of the Small Amazonie is located right next to it. “
Within the majority, the elected ecologists also pass a harsh judgment on this urban project. Regretting that no social rental housing is planned, they ask for “a moratorium in order to take the time for evaluation and debate”. Another question, the height of the building, which “does not allow to have the most limited carbon footprint” according to them. “The tower has received numerous labels for its ecological performance and responds to the demand to build housing on a reduced footprint, justifies Lina Ghotmeh, the winning architect. The challenge was that she wasn’t just a block lying there. Its shape is dynamic, graded, with a multiplicity of colors to give it light. “
Like the elected environmentalists, the local residents’ collective demands “better information and consultation of the inhabitants”. This Friday, the metropolis indicated that a consultation will be carried out on the subject of the development of public spaces.