"The aquatic stadium brings together 4 disciplines: online swimming, waterpolo, diving and synchronized swimming. The roofs of the main building and its extension are refined into a long low shore to establish a discreet and respectful relationship with the Bois de Vincennes. Landscaped glazes extending from the basins reveal the building’s belonging to the Wood.

The structure develops into a game of horizontal origami, whose folds and cuts form sheds participating in the luminous identity of the hall of the basins. The service areas are pooled in a clean volume of open-worked wooden claps, in collusion with the nearby sports hall. The aquatic stage is a pilot operation for the HQE certification of swimming pools. The reconstruction and extension of the Centre nautique Émile-Schoebel is one of the essential components of the INSEP renovation plan. Since the previous aquatic stadium was destroyed by fire in 2008, the new building, delivered in October 2014, is in a situation of extension of the recent synchronized swimming building built by François Leclercq and constitutes a unique swimming pole.

The new nautical centre will now be equipped with an Olympic swimming pool for running (50 x 25 metres) and water polo, a diving pit and dedicated rooms (physiotherapy, infirmary, gym, administration rooms) shared for all four disciplines. A protected site and an important program are the starting points of a compact and rational project. The new construction is inserted in the heart of the wood of Vincennes, the part of a discreet and continuity of the neighbors brings a building partially buried, leaving only the slice of its roof side wood. On the INSEP side, the building housing the shared premises creates a place in all the sports halls. A folded cover diffusing the light and dressed in wood, allows to accommodate a hall conducive to high level sport.

The contracting authority wanted this equipment to be exemplary in terms of environmental quality. Initially a pilot project for the development of the HQE standard for sports equipment, certification for the design phase was obtained with an “excellent” rating."