“This building is like a Swiss Army knife,” says Yves Arnod—one half, with Isabel Hérault, of Paris-based Hérault Arnod Architectures—about the Espace Mayenne, a multifunctional facility for spectator sports, live entertainment, and business fairs. Commissioned by the département of La Mayenne, in northwestern France, it is located on the outskirts of Laval—La Mayenne’s administrative center, a town of 50,000 inhabitants with a picturesque medieval center—on a former military site that is being transformed into a sustainable neighborhood. Situated halfway between Le Mans and Rennes, La Mayenne is essentially rural, but is nonetheless home to several large businesses, among them the international dairy concern Lactalis. The local government’s ambition in building the $42 million Espace Mayenne was to provide facilities that were lacking and boost the area’s attractiveness.

A cycle track flanks Espace Mayenne, which is wrapped in a skirt of perforated and striated white sheet-aluminum (above and top). Photo © Cyrille Weiner, click to enlarge.