manoeuvres_txt — vvv architecture urbanisme

The city of Tournai is a textbook example: its concentric structure is extremely clear, and the suburbs that have developed outside the city walls form a homogeneous, open-air crown through which the city is quickly connected to a rural and agricultural landscape. The green belt is the strong urban and ecological feature with which the site in question has the benefit of being associated. In addition, the site enjoys the presence of two programs with a strong community focus—the sports hall and the cultural center—which guarantee its liveliness, as do the built-up neighborhoods that surround it. These programs currently tend to divide the use of the surface area into zones: the active zone of the sports fields accompanying the facilities to the north, the urban facade and esplanade to the east, the large open meadow to the south, and the area of spontaneous vegetation to the west. Landscaping interventions on the “plaine des manoeuvres” serve to unify and create links between these sub-spaces that have naturally taken shape on the site, without adding new ones.