Architecture
Architecture
Architecture/patrimony
In 1967, General Charles de Gaulle decides that the Parc des Princes stadium should be dedicated to the football and rugby games with a capacity of under 60 000 seats. Another stadium devoted to athletics should be build at the old pershing stadium site located at the city of Vincennes.
Those days, the ancient velodrome stadium should be destroyed because a new beltway road will be build around the city of Paris. The proposal to build this road under the stadium structure was approuved by the city council and by the prefect of Paris, Mr. Doublet.
Because the requirements of the Borotra law, decreeting the non destruction of sports installations, this challenge would appear in the architect researchs.
As the pursuit of the french championships was decided,a plan choosen by the sports city council and the sports ministry, enforce the partial demolition of the stadium while pursuing the matches calendar.
The architect was obliged to conceive a structure able to be only partially builded. the financing was incompatible with the execution procedures for the whole stadium building project.
3 main phases
The plan should be achieved in 3 main phases. The technical and financial challenges cannot be overlooked by the architect.
The building commitment researchs of Roger Taillibert and his team ,was supported by their knowledge in civil engineering and their technical potential to launch a new architectural statement.
The concrete use regulations approuve 20,00 m of overhang and the plans reaches around 50,00 m.
Also, the division by building phases or portions of this contemporary architecture exhibits an "art nouveau" approach to the public, with prefabricated materials as the concrete,very criticized at this time. Finally, a special authorization concents archs for the 50,00 m.overhangs.
The first constraint was to superpose the two constructions works,building the stadium structure over the beltway section.
Researchs have been made by the architect based on a pre-lay out which the contractor should strictly respect and follow until the end of the building site.
The building site of font-romeu, achieved in 9 months, brough out clearly the weakness of the architect involved, pointed out by the contractor and the research unit, which vocation was always to shrink back the architectural progress.
But it was not the case for the Parc des Princes project as the contractor should follow the architect design and plans.
The architectural researchs were very in advance. A major problem should be treated and solved: the rain and snow drainage system. The inverted curved shape of the roof at every angle of the stadium allows to integrate the draining
inside the porticos.
Self-table porticos
This device requires to master the self-stable porticos.
Thus, all the vertical elements presents a 7.00 m overhang in their external curve this overhang allows to balance the beams installation.
The keystones were holded by a provisional prestress, then by permanent cables, creating an intersecting prestress at the coving of the porticos' heads.
When launching the beams, a special vault keystone with a masted joint, able to receive the first keystone then the others, with a provisional beam, holding 25 tonnes pieces were installed,while waiting for the permanent cabling.
For the very first time, after many discussions, Roger Taillibert took out the lighting poles, incorporating a technical roof rack integrating the spotslights and the sound system. It was a huge simplification in terms of maintenance, lighting quality and t.v. coverage of the field.
Terraces on two row levels
The terraces were designed in two row levels: a low one with 23000 seats and a high one with 27000 seats and without standing areas to ensure the total security of the public, that by request of the sports council president.this device was helped along thanks to the technical understanding of the sports ministry engineers involved in the process.
The architects and engineers team, with a wealth of experience behind them, proved that the achievement of this constructivist architecture, a stadium structure in concrete, was possible.
The first achieved element of a beam meshing holding this structure was a fact.the building process of the first phase was finish quickly.
It was sure that the beams' meshing was exceptional as each beam consists of 250m3 of concrete and the porticos anchorage includes a spectacular iron framework,requiring more than 250kgs of steel per m3.
At the beginning of the assemblage, an incident related to the inobservance of a bouygues co. worker, caused a great emotion as the claude bernard high school should be evacuated.
| > The construction Since 1968 the execution calculations were computer-aided.on the other hand, all the architectural project was manually designed. The stadium was compounded of 13 different types of porticos. This period reinforce the civil engineering potential of huge spans and loads introduced in the contemporary architecture in France, Japan and Australia. Roger Taillibert achieve for the very first time the intersecting prestressed concrete technique, thanks to his thorough knowledge of great construction works, integrating technical equipments (as lighting). |
| > General remarks The vaults-keystones have been prefabricated in a special unit located at the present game field, following a very strict schedule at the building site. The stadium was designed over an elliptical outline of 252m x 191m. The bleachers'structure located very close to the game areas limits (football and rugby) is formed by 52 porticos, holding 2 bleachers of concrete terraces and a metallic lightweight galvanized roofing, prelaquered between the beams. A technical string links the beams directly above the field limits, incorporating the field spotlights and the rain draining system. the stadium geometry leads the porticos of varied heights according to the beams'length, which allows –with the inversion of its slope in 4 angles- the rain drainage by stainless steel pipes of 300 cm. in diameter, incorporated in the porticos. The 2 terraces levels offers to the audience an open view over the whole field, free of all the roofing supports, these ones being located at the external limits of the arena. The terraces are supplied with individual seats. As the spotslights have been integrated in the technical string, all along the field,it allows to provide an homogeneous lighting, without players shadows effects, ensuring then a high quality TV. broadcasting thanks to the cameras position linked to the TV-studio-vans. According to an article at time magazine in 1972, for the Parc des Princes inauguration, the stadium was considered then as one of the more remarkable construction works of Paris, mostly because its architectural quality ever achieved in the city since the last 30 years, with the communist party headquarters by Oscar Niemeyer. The Parc des Princes represents an spectacular progress among the great french architectural tradition of the reinforced, prefabricated and prestressed concrete applications. At this time, the Olympic Stadium of Munich, designed by Gunter Behnish, was builded with a totally different technique: a metallic structure with a textile roofing, suspended over the middle of the stadium. Two different concepts, two new images, two strong architectures: thanks to the Parc des Princes achievement, Roger Taillibert will export a few years later, the concept and know-how of french architecture based on prestressed vaults-keystones for the olympic complex of montreal. |
> Calendar
First contact: september,1967.
Inauguration: june the 4th ,1972.
Cost: 90 000 000 f.f. in 1972.
Concrete: 77 000 m3
Steel: 7000 tons
Steel: 600 tons(prestressed)
