An Olympic gold for the Cote d'Or

It has been revealed by le president du Grand Dijon (21), François Rebsamen, that an architectural project for an Olympic sized swimming pool has been granted to Dijon.

The pool will be built at a cost of around 2 millions euros and is set to open in 2009. The project was placed in the hands of Japac, based at Mont-Saint-Aignan in the Seine-Maritime which has many such projects under its belt.

The company has designed aquatic centres at Tours and Chantilly and a skating rink at Strasbourg however, the aquatic centre in Shanghi, at more than 25,000 m2, where the Chinese water polo team train, is their largest project.

The pool at Dijon destined to cover an area of 3.5 hectares, measuring 8000 m2 and will have three pools, the largest of which will be 50m, a training pool and a warming up pool of 25m by 10m, a solarium, sauna, hammam and a Japanese garden.

There will be a tiered area which will seat 1500 people. Built under the regulations of HQE (haute qualité environnementale) the centre will be able to accommodate 1500 swimmers at the same time. It is to be built in the Dijon suburb of Mirande near to CREPS (Centre d’Education Populaire et de Sport), which, in itself, is undergoing renovation.

The choice of Japac as the architects is not without its critics, Christian de Crépy, president de l’Ordre des architectes de Bourgogne, felt that there were architects of equal calibre in the region and is sorry that the committee chose to use architects out of the region.

However, in making his announcement M. Rebsamen is confident that the residents of Burgundy will benefit from the project.