History - The Tournesol swimming pool or the Sunflower pool is a swimming pool model resulting from a french national program for the construction of industrial-type swimming pools, which led to the construction of 183 swimming pools of this type in France in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
This program was launched in 1969 by the State Secretariat for Youth, Sports and Leisure, then headed by Joseph Comiti, under the title of operation "1,000 swimming pools". Its aim was to teach swimming, following the poor results of French swimmers at the 1968 Summer Olympics and accelerated by two accidents in the summer of 1969: the drowning in the Loire of 19 children from a leisure center in Juigné-sur-Loire and the drowning of 24 people including 14 girls in the sinking of the pleasure boat La Fraidieu.
The pools are designed so that two of the arches move, each opening to 60 ° and allowing the pool to be uncovered when the weather permits (like the heliotropism of the sunflower , hence its name). The design is the work of the architect Bernard Schoeller, assisted by the engineer Thémis Constantinidis for the structure, and the Matra company for the materials. 183 examples were built between 1972 and 1982.
The Explore - We've wanted to see one of these pools for a while and attempted the most well known example near Beauvais on a previous trip, unfortunately it was sealed. We found this one at random while staying near Rouen, predominantly touring the Atlantikwall coastal defences. This pool is not in the best condition but still really photogenic due to the funky design!
Thanks for looking.
This program was launched in 1969 by the State Secretariat for Youth, Sports and Leisure, then headed by Joseph Comiti, under the title of operation "1,000 swimming pools". Its aim was to teach swimming, following the poor results of French swimmers at the 1968 Summer Olympics and accelerated by two accidents in the summer of 1969: the drowning in the Loire of 19 children from a leisure center in Juigné-sur-Loire and the drowning of 24 people including 14 girls in the sinking of the pleasure boat La Fraidieu.
The pools are designed so that two of the arches move, each opening to 60 ° and allowing the pool to be uncovered when the weather permits (like the heliotropism of the sunflower , hence its name). The design is the work of the architect Bernard Schoeller, assisted by the engineer Thémis Constantinidis for the structure, and the Matra company for the materials. 183 examples were built between 1972 and 1982.
The Explore - We've wanted to see one of these pools for a while and attempted the most well known example near Beauvais on a previous trip, unfortunately it was sealed. We found this one at random while staying near Rouen, predominantly touring the Atlantikwall coastal defences. This pool is not in the best condition but still really photogenic due to the funky design!
Thanks for looking.
