Dream to build football pitches beneath the Paris périphérique

At the Porte Pouchet in Paris, the architecture practice Dream, led by Dimitri Roussel, will deliver a sports facility beneath the Paris périphérique in 2020. The scheme, a winner of the Réinventer Paris competition, will provide four five-a-side football pitches, along with a food and drink hub extended by a covered terrace.

Context and site

The Porte Pouchet project forms part of the City of Paris's drive to revitalise the areas alongside the périphérique. The practice TER, which is in charge of the urban design of the Porte Pouchet, has been tasked with transforming the living environment, creating the conditions for a lively neighbourhood and opening up this isolated area. The sports facility aims to bring together the towns of Clichy-la-Garenne, Saint-Ouen and Paris.

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The spaces beneath civil engineering structures have long been treated as covered car parks, creating urban breaks in the process. This is the case, for example, with Lille's elevated metro or London's railway viaducts. Under pressure from environmental issues heightened by the scarcity of land, cities are now turning their attention to the fringes that border their ring roads. In Paris, one example is the Mille Arbres project by Oxo Architectes and Sou Fujimoto, which will cover the périphérique at the Porte Maillot.

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Here, the approach is different, with a comparatively more modest project. The facility slips beneath the périphérique, encouraging Parisian pedestrians to carry on into the inner suburbs. Speaking to us, the architect Dimitri Roussel, founder of Dream, said: “The city's teams were very collaborative and enthusiastic about this new sporting and gastronomic venue, the first of its kind beneath the périphérique. We did, however, have to keep the deck and the piers of the périphérique visible and accessible at all times. Fortunately, we found ways of slipping between the imposing piers”.

The Paris périphérique has its good side too

Of course, when people talk about the Paris périphérique, “air pollution” and “noise nuisance” are the first phrases that come to mind. Dimitri Roussel nonetheless points to certain qualities: “Surprising as it may seem, the space beneath the périphérique is rather comfortable acoustically. The concrete deck, several metres thick, provides a degree of comfort. That is why our partners at Le Five (the operator of the football pitches) had the brilliant idea of making this more than a set of pitches, a place built around food and togetherness, with a sports bar, a restaurant and a food court in such a unique setting! The périphérique has just been completely cleaned as part of the creation of the Place de la Porte Pouchet (TER). It has given rise to a really lovely atmosphere. We can't wait to bring this new urban interstice to life with our project!”.

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A construction site that makes the most of prefabrication

Asked about the complexity of the construction site, Dimitri Roussel explained: “We adapted our construction methods to the unusual context with a prefabrication system. The building housing the sports bar, a restaurant and the food court is a 100% timber structure. As well as being low-carbon, this solution allows us to build it in less than three months! The same goes for the four football pitches, which use dry construction systems. With this strategy we have sidestepped any difficulties of building beneath the périphérique”.