Town: Pouligny Notre-Dame (Indre)
Location: Ligny leisure centre
Pouligny Notre-Dame, a town of 720 inhabitants located in the Centre-Val de Loire region, wanted to offer a wide range of activities to all sectors of the public at its Ligny leisure centre, which is already well frequented by winter and water sports enthusiasts.
The idea was to develop a real tourist project around the lake in order to attract increasing numbers of people and more families, a place where everyone could have fun and enjoy sports activities to match their age and desires.
The municipality therefore decided to upgrade the children’s playground by adding a multi-activity structure, the first of its kind in France, designed for young people aged 5 to 16.
We were immediately won over by the modern appearance of Proludic’s Kanopé structure, its natural integration into the environment of the Ligny leisure centre as well as its originality, which makes our town the first in France to have a Kanopé Tower which is over 8 metres in height.
Danielle Lamy, Mayoress of Pouligny-notre-Dame
The Ligny leisure centre: a regional attraction and a popular destination for holidaymakers
Pouligny Notre-Dame is located in the centre of a square formed by the municipalities of Châteauroux (Indre), Guéret (Creuse), Montluçon (Allier) and Poitiers (Vienne).
Built in 2016 by the municipality, the Ligny leisure centre is constructed around a 3.5 hectare lake. It extends over 9 hectares and offers visitors a camp site and various leisure activity areas: a ski lift which is unique in the Centre region (powered by electricity so as not to generate any noise pollution and to preserve the peace and quiet of the site), a landscaped beach, a BMX leisure track, a disc golf area, boules and volleyball court, table tennis tables and children’s play equipment.
During the summer of 2018, it welcomed just over 40,000 visitors.
The bold choice to install a double Kanopé Tower of a height of 8.70 m
A majestic structure from the Kanopé range dominates the leisure centre from above and is the main attraction of the playground.
This ultra-large-scale structure, which occupies a ground area of 100 m², is designed around two airy, transparent towers. The first tower is 6 m high; the second is 8.70 m high.
Inside, there are no stairs with solid steps: the tower is ascended using ropes and rubber webbing. The spaces are small, the supports are unstable.
The children climb upwards to reach the high, asymmetrical play houses. These platforms have closed peepholes and offer a breathtaking view of the playground.
From these play houses, the children walk through a steel wire tunnel to the other tower. Balance, spatial awareness and a crawling position are needed to be able to pass through these confined spaces.
Arranged at different heights, 1 spiral slide (6 m high) and 2 Kayak slides guarantee thrilling descents.
The Kanopé range: inspired by nature
The Kanopé range, which won the 2018 Good Design Australia award, has made its mark in the rural environment of the Ligny site.
The Kanopé range, with its structures resembling wild grasses or tree trunks bent by the wind, invites children to venture into nature.
Its dominant colours – green and brown – ensure that it blends in well with the natural surroundings, an impression that is enhanced by its clean, contemporary design.
The path inside the structures is reminiscent of the games that children invent for themselves in nature and in the woods. The pathway is both horizontal and vertical and sometimes steep or unstable.
At the heart of the Ligny leisure centre, the Kanopé structure with its many play activities blends into the scenery and is reflected in the waters of the lake. The harmony is total.
Playground installed before the start of the summer season
Proludic pulled out all of the stops at its production site in Vouvray (Indre-et-Loire) to complete this project within a short period of time, as Nadine Rollet, Sales Director of Proludic France, explains:
We only had a few months to install the structure at the leisure centre before the good weather arrived. Aside from the original nature of the project, the management of the processes by our in-house teams – from project design to production, implementation and installation – was also praised by Pouligny Notre-Dame’s elected officials.
Nadine Rollet, Sales Director of Proludic France
