Reflecting the district, the city and its history, the architecture of the Bordeaux sports complex aims to develop a bold presence due to its strong and clear shape. Against a changing backdrop with strong components, the project aims to form ties with its surroundings. The site is steeped in industrial identity. Combined with ancient stone houses, the location’s identity draws its uniqueness from the variety of types and scales of buildings (hangars, silos, industrial & nautical activities, terraced suburban housing, etc.). All whilst forming ties with the industrial past, the project aims to create a coherent whole with the neighbouring buildings in a particularly mixed urban zone. The most representative characteristic of the past industrial buildings is the “shed” roofing, from which the project draws formal inspiration. It also helps provide natural lighting with northern light on all the courts. On a large scale, the building appears like a logo in the larger urban landscape; at street level, it has an autonomy allowing it to be viewed as a unique building which gives it its status as a public facility. With an imprinted concrete structure, the envelope is made up of a prefabricated “bi-metal” system which constitutes the external vertical structure. The choice of this construction technique supports energy performance and sustainability. The close mullions allow the façades to be kept as a single material. This allows us to play with the light using drop shadows. Due to this outline at building level, depending on their orientation the appearance of the facades changes continually: the shadows created by the vertical structure change throughout the day and the seasons depending on the position of the sun. Inside, natural light streams into all activity spaces and even into the common corridors. The light colours are carefully chosen to improve light distribution. The functional challenge is to promote each entity whilst keeping the spaces divided as coherently as possible. The layout illustrates the facility’s functional and structural clarity. This architecture underlines a logical use of relatively restricted constructed space. It does not aim to be self-sufficient. It must support different activities and allow users to reappropriate the location.