clement bacle and ludovic ducasse architects: banaball

‘banaball’ by clement bacle and ludovic ducasse, nantes, france all images courtesy of clement bacle and ludovic ducasse image © martin argyroglo for le lieu unique in nantes

french architects clement bacle and ludovic ducasse have built ‘banaball‘, an installation for the exhibition ‘playgrounds’ located on the roof of the school of architecture in nantes, france. the new sport occures within a 6m by 12m metal-frame structure highlighted with a yellow wooden floor and enclosed with a chain-link skin, designed to be assembled on-site. the ends of the box shape have been slightly tapered out to form the goals, and as the name implies, the project is replete with bananas throughout the terminology and iconography.

the sport consists of five foam balls and two teams with three players who must ‘banafreeze’ the opposing competitors by hitting them directly with a ball before it touches the ground. offensive maneuvers are executed from behind the attack line with the use of a hand-held wicker scoop called the banarama, borrowing from the ‘chistera’ of the basque pastime. defensively, incoming projectiles can be blocked by banamoving (dodging), banablocking (with the banarama), or momentarily banahiding behind a banafrozen teammate. when a goal is scored, all banafrozen players on the scoring side are free to move, at which point the entire bunch screams ‘bbaaannaaaabbaaaall’, celebrating the fruits of their labor.

geo coordinates: 47° 14′ 30” , 1° 33′ 56”

exterior image © martin argyroglo for le lieu unique in nantes