A unique envelope for a unique building: Palais des Victoires in Cannes

Detailed information

The main volume of the sports complex, which has a polygonal configuration, surrounds the main hall. The second volume, which has a prismatic body, is highly longitudinal and very flexibly organised.

The complex houses the trampoline hall, the school sports hall, the heating room, and multipurpose areas (e.g. press, VIP, Club-House, maintenance services, control rooms, and security).

Architecture with Indaten®

These superposed areas surrounding the main hall form an 'intermediate' area between this hall and the Indaten® 355A jacket. This jacket 'translates' on the exterior the configuration that it conceals and protects.

The Palais des Victoires is designed to be a unique structure. The material used for its external appearance should also be unique, and Indaten® 355A steel serves this purpose.

Indaten® 355A steel's quality is in its patina, which consolidates over time by means of a process whereby its colours take on a hue between red, orange, and brown.

This process of development is currently at the beginning stage in the 'Palais des Sports' and is therefore irregular. Nevertheless, it is partially and gradually starting to reveal growing uniformity in its texture. Furthermore, the reddish colours of the steel oxides formed on the patina act as a protective layer for the rest of the material and does not therefore require additional maintenance.

The building must endure and age with dignity as it will be part of the city landscape. Indaten® 355A steel will enhance the beauty of the building with the passing of time.

Indaten® panels were the optimal solution as they meet the following objectives:

• Natural developing materials
• Mat-texture colour that changes with the conditions of time
• Low thickness level for coating sheet
• Lightness of the panels system enables a lighter main structure
• Appearance of a single volume due to continuity between the facade and roof
• Easy to put in place as a result of the fixing systems

The layout plan was studied in order to standardise the panel types as much as possible. The resectioning of the facade was carried out on the basis of three types of panels:

90 x 90, 90 x 180, 90 x 270 cm. Tooled joints (2 cm) were used to implement broken lines of lights on the facade and the roof.

The aim of the layout plan was the perfect integration of the door and window frames, ventilation systems, and air vents. The result is a single-material volume that properly fulfils its architectural purpose.

Load-bearing & roof structure

IPE and HEA type profiles were used to build the complex load bearing structure and floors in thirteen months, which meant 1000m² a month.

The roof is supported by a three-dimensional tube structure to create complex forms. Three qualities of this type of steel structure are its aesthetics, lightness, and stability.