The National Sports and Culture Centre d'Coque (French: Centre National Sportif et Culturel d'Coque), better known simply as d'Coque, (English: The Hull or The Shell) is a sporting and cultural venue with an indoor arena and Olympic-sized swimming pool, amongst other facilities, in Kirchberg, a district of Luxembourg City, in Luxembourg. More recently it has expanded into providing onsite hotel se
- Venue
- D'Coque
- Address
- 2, rue Léon Hengen L-1745
- Town
- Luxembourg, LU
The National Sports and Culture Centre d'Coque (French: Centre National Sportif et Culturel d'Coque), better known simply as d'Coque, (English: The Hull or The Shell) is a sporting and cultural venue with an indoor arena and Olympic-sized swimming pool, amongst other facilities, in Kirchberg, a district of Luxembourg City, in Luxembourg. More recently it has expanded into providing onsite hotel services, and acting as a conference venue. Plans for an ambitious national sports venue, as part of wider national sports programme in Luxembourg began in the 1960s with a stated aim of the government of the time being to compete in the international arena, where it was believed it could make a name for itself. On 12 July 1969, the then Minister of Physical Education and Sports, Gaston Thorn, organised a roundtable with stakeholders, where the most preeminent view was that modern sports facilities should be available and easily accessible to athletes and civil society in Luxembourg of all levels and ages. In February 1974, French architect Roger Taillibert presented his bold plans for futuristic swimming pool and sporting arena, which captured the spirit of the Luxembourg state's desire to construct a public landmark dedicated to its national sporting ambitions and open to civil society at large. State planners decided to construct the venue on the Kirchberg plateau, which at the time was largely undeveloped former farmland. Amongst other reasons for the decision, was the cheap and readily available land, the desire for urban development of the area, and an ambition to keep and further attract the European Communities (now European Union) institutions located there. The sporting complex was divided into an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and an indoor arena. Most strikingly, the venues, wrought of glass, pre-stressed concrete and wood, were to be encased in and connected via six giant shell or upside-down-hull copper roof structures from which the French name, d'Coque derived.