The RCR architecture studio received in 2017 the Pritzker Prize, the Oscar for his discipline. Among his projects is one hidden athletics track to nature. Its walls are the trees. This is the stadium Tussols-Basil d’Olot.
Hidden among trees, the stadium has six lanes, like other tracks, but it has a peculiarity that makes it unique in its kind: its integration into nature, almost fusion.
“It’s spectacular. It’s amazing. It’s a privilege to have this track. It’s like you’re in a separate world, in here. You can hear the birds. There’s no noise. You seem to be alone with nature, and it even does. that the workouts are much more pleasant, a little less hard, and that the suffering is less “, affirms the professional triathlete Nan Oliveras.
The track, located in an old crop field, was designed in early 90s by RCR. Ramon Vilalta, one of the three architects of the city studio, explains that the driving idea of the project was “to bring the athletes closer to nature, because it seemed that all this was being lost”.
With the desire to “sew the end of an unfinished city and the natural park” of La Garrotxa, it was a “really innovative and even disruptive” project. Because a track was designed “in a different way, than ever before, because it escaped the typical typology of athletics stadiums, with concrete and closed nature stands”, continues Vilalta.
According to Vilalta, “what closes the stadium is the forest itself, not a bleachers. A lot of the materials used were natural: the trees are the walls. ”
RCR sought to have “a very simple, very inconspicuous footprint: putting the void before the full, making the prominence go through the tree, rather than the cement. There are no more things than necessary and essential: just the lights, a little equipment for the locker rooms and little else. And this unemployment has a lot to do with the strength of the whole. ”
In this sense, Vilalta states that “sometimes we humans get lost in talking too much. of a work of architecture, of a film or whatever. Here the opposite exercise was done. ”
The project sought “a symbiosis, based on the idea that architecture should not be imposed on the place, the landscape, nature. merge, without either party denying or imposing on the other, so that both parties generate a better place than before. ”
However, despite the fact that at first it generated controversy and doubts between ecology and sport, due to the coexistence between trees and athletes, today the track is presented as “an example, and this is very nice because it means that these ideas are settling in, and we are beginning to value what generated all kinds of looks and answers “, celebrates Vilalta.
“It’s a special place, inspiring. It also serves to open the thought, the imagination “, he remarks, satisfied.
In the same vein, the Councilor for Sports of Olot, Aniol Sellabona, claims that the track, built between 1999 and 2001, is “a source of pride” and is “the most unique sports facility in the city. incomparable place with other tracks, an idyllic space in the middle of nature. It’s a lively track, because even the colors change with the seasons. ”
Sellabona also points out the pioneering nature of the stadium: “The link with nature may seem like a more current concept, but we have been enjoying this track for more than 20 years. At that time it was a revolution. “.
In addition, the Sports Councilor points out that the track “has a lot of visitors” and states that work is being done “with great intensity to position the stadium as tourist asset and to enhance its tourism side. “” In the few months since we have taken a step forward in this direction, we have already maintained contacts with people who are very interested in coming, “he reveals.
In this sense, Oliveras says that the track has been gaining popularity in recent years, especially on social media: “more and more people are coming from outside. Many French people come. When I upload photos to Instagram, people from all over write to me ‘Wafer, where is this track?’ ”
Oliveras is precisely one of them elite athletes who train on this track, alongside fellow triathlete Genís Grau and athletes Laura Hernández, from FC Barcelona, and Esther Guerrero, who in 2020 set the Spanish record of 2,000 meters in Olot, “at home”, with a record of 5.41.30.
The Banyoles athlete states that “it’s a real pastime to train in a place like this. It gives you a point of pleasure. It’s no longer like a workspace. When you run on tracks surrounded by buildings you don’t feel the same. Here I feel that “I’m very lucky. Everyone who comes is jealous of us. They tell me. I feel lucky and happy here.”
