Vélodrome

Casablanca's Vélodrome stadium, built in the 1920s, is being transformed into an urban park for Casa Aménagement. The 27,000 m² plot, rare at this scale in such a dense city, holds three structures listed since 2013: the track, the Eiffel-style grandstand and the entrance gate. The project turns the site into a place open to all Casablancans, preserving the identity of the velodrome while giving it contemporary uses.

The approach keeps the outline of the oval and restores the original structures. The grandstand's roof structure and metalwork are dismantled and stripped for like-for-like restoration. The project is organised along a north–south axis, from the restored grandstand in the north to a kiosk that mirrors it, in a contemporary language, in the south. The track remains the central figure of the park: its banked bends host a skate area, while a cycle path and a footpath run along the ring. An area reserved for a mobile stage faces the grandstand.

The programme combines everyday and occasional uses. The park offers a children's playground near the entrance and the grandstand, spaces to walk and rest, and four steel-framed kiosks around the oval for cafés and exhibitions. Their forms vary with their function, from the orthogonal volume to the cylindrical kiosk that follows the curving paths drawn by the landscape architect. The whole site can also be used by the city for events, concerts or gatherings, the mobile stage and the grandstand welcoming audiences in a heritage setting: a public amenity designed for the people who live here.