what happened to the 27 Tournesol swimming pools in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais regions?
These are endangered monuments: the Tournesol swimming pools. Pools in the shape of domes installed in the 1970s. Twenty-seven were built in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais. The majority are no longer active, but what happens to them? Examples in Lambersart and Loos.
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It is a monument from another time, resembling a spaceship, which has often deteriorated over time. In Lille-Hellemmes, Loubna and Mohamed grew up facing the town’s sunflower pool. The second explains: “I like this pool, I lived here, I learned to swim here… But we should also make you want to come back here, to swim inside”. And for good reason, the building made in the 1970s has aged somewhat: the exterior of the structure is blackened and its architecture may give the impression of dating.
Following the catastrophic results of French swimmers at the 1968 Olympics, the State decided to build more than 180 sunflower swimming pools. The concept: little desired, in kit form is revolutionary. A dome that opens when the weather permits. Today, the majority have been abandoned or destroyed because the maintenance of these structures is too expensive in the long term.
Yet near Lille, in Lambersart, the town has chosen to promote this heritage. Thomas Hubert is deputy mayor in charge of sport and explains that the city is preparing to invest 30,000 euros in the repair of the sunflower swimming pool, which has been out of order for 15 years. It is a question of repairing the sunroof but also of installing an ephemeral beach this summer. “There is also a nostalgia, so when we communicated that it was going to reopen, people said ‘it reminds me of the swimming pool of my childhood’; ‘when it opens it is nice’. ‘ is heritage, heritage of the city and it is out of the question to go and shave everything”.
In Loos, still in the Lille metropolis, a large dojo created 27 years ago has been installed in place of the swimming pool. But the building, the metal structure and the dome survive. What allows to have today some 700 m ² of tatamis, that is to say one of the largest dojos of the metropolis of Lille.
And under the tatami mats, you can even access the traces of the old pool! In the Nord and Pas-de-Calais, only 9 sunflower pools are still in operation compared to 27 previously.