JOSÉPHINE BAKER DANCE HALL BY ONZE04: WHERE SPORTS ARCHITECTURE BECOMES PUBLIC SPACE BENEATH A SCULPTURAL TEXTILE CANOPY

Joséphine baker dance hall: sculptural textile architecture for sport, culture and community

In La Bouëxière, Onze04 Architecture designed the Joséphine Baker Dance Hall as a hybrid facility where architecture, sport, and public space merge into a single urban experience. More than just a dance hall integrated within the Marie-José Pérec sports and cultural center, the project offers a contemporary reflection on how a public building can become a place of movement, interaction, and collective identity.

The architectural concept is based on a strong urban strategy: transforming a conventional sports facility into an open civic infrastructure. A public promenade runs through the site, connecting surrounding sports grounds, schools, and future urban developments, turning the building into both a circulation hub and a cultural destination. This idea of urban permeability moves the project away from the traditional closed gymnasium model and gives it a broader civic and territorial dimension.

The project is also defined by its striking textile roofscape. Its white multi-peaked canopy acts as a landmark within the landscape while filtering soft natural light into the sports and cultural spaces below. Rather than creating a monumental static object, the architects developed a lightweight and almost scenographic structure that evokes movement, performance, and public gathering.

Inside, the timber structure introduces a warmer and more tactile atmosphere, contrasting with the airy expression of the exterior envelope. This balance between visual lightness and structural solidity reinforces the project’s identity: a building that operates simultaneously as an urban landmark, a sports venue, and an everyday collective space.

Like Jacques Moussafir Architects’ transformation of Le Temps Machine in Joué-lès-Tours, the Joséphine Baker Dance Hall explores also the architectural potential of the envelope as both a technical device and an urban statement. In both projects, the second skin transcends its protective role to become an active civic interface: a lightweight textile canopy in La Bouëxière, and a reinterpreted opaque shell in Joué-lès-Tours. Beyond their functional performance, these envelopes transform ordinary public programmes into recognizable landmarks, sculptural figures that project a strong cultural identity into the landscape while remaining open, accessible and collectively appropriable.

Completed in 2025, the project reflects Onze04 Architecture’s contemporary approach to public facilities, where architecture is no longer conceived simply as a container for activities, but as a framework capable of shaping new relationships between landscape, mobility, and community life.

Awards & Distinctions

Finalist — European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Awards (2026)
Finalist — Premios FAD Internacional (2025)
Winner — BEST Architects Award (2026)
Winner — Architecture MasterPrize
Shortlisted — Dezeen Awards (2025)

technical sheet

project name :marie-josé perec sports and cultural centre, joséphine baker dance hall  ( centre sportif et culturel marie-josé perec, salle de danse joséphine baker  ) 
location: la bouëxière, ille-et-vilaine, France
client: commune de la bouëxière

architecture: onze04 architecture -  onze04.fr
landscape architect: onze04 
project team: gustavo silva-nicoletti, margaux-anne bouvier, mathias
program:  marie-josé perec building: 595-seat multi-sports hall for departmental-level competitions, 9 badminton courts, 1 handball court, 1 tennis court, 1 basketball court, pre-installation for climbing wall
/ joséphine baker building: dance hall, dance changing rooms, technical rooms, squash hall / shared facilities: main lobby, social space, players’ changing rooms, referees’ changing rooms, infirmary, anti-doping room, boiler room /  outdoor spaces: main forecourt, 2 padel courts. 
gross floor area: 2,505 sqm
construction cost: €4.65m excl. vat 

competition: 2020
completion:  2025
consultants: 
– cost consultant: 107eco
– building services engineer: solab
– structural engineer: even
– acoustic consultant: avel
– textile architecture consultant: asteo

photography: Juan Cardona (c)