Club & Courts

Sports · Clubhouse

2023 - 2024 · sP+a

With Sakshi Ghulati, Avani Mandpe, Vaibhav Jain, Shweta Gore, and Arjun Prajapati

Club & Courts is a high-performance centre for domestic cricket in Chennai, built together with a sports club. The building is wrapped around the practice ground as a ribbon, and the two are designed as one, as there cannot be one without the other. Wherever you are inside, the pitch stays in view, so the building works as a living amphitheatre, full of the life of a club but always turned towards the cricket. By joining club and stadium, it makes the people watching part of the game.

The three floors rise as ribbons, stacked and fanning out at the ends. Outside, people walk between floors on ramps along the ribbons themselves.

From above, the ribbon wraps the ground on three sides and leaves the fourth open to the trees, the outdoor courts, and the pool.

Frame by frame, it shows the site and its approach roads, the trees already on it, the setback under the high-tension lines along one edge, the ground set out with its floodlights, the trees that fall within it (in red), and what is left to build on (in yellow), wrapping around the ground.

The ribbon rises from the ground at one end and climbs to three floors at the corner, its glazed edge turned to the pitch all the way round.

The programme falls into three parts, each with its own stretch of the ribbon. The sports club has courts, a pool, a gym, and lounges; the high-performance centre has the training ground, the third umpire's room, accommodation, physiotherapy, and anti-doping rooms; and the revenue spaces, a banquet hall, restaurants, a cafe, a spa, a store, and co-working, bring in income.

The form began as a solid mass sized to the programme. It was then carved, with volumes scooped out where each function needed room, every cut sized by the volume that function required. Last, the roof was draped over the programme beneath it as ribbons.

The sports club and the training centre share the edge facing the ground, with halls for badminton and table tennis, a gym, a squash court, the pool, and rooms for the players who stay at the centre.

Inside, a winding, double-height hallway runs the length of the building and links its three programmes of sport, hospitality, and the club. Restaurants, a cafe, and lounges open off it towards the ground, while outside the planted ribbons double as ramps between the floors.

Three studies for the face of the building turned to the ground, from open bands of glass to finer louvres over an arcade at the base.

Below the building, banks of grass step down to the running track, and the ramps climb its face. The last three photographs show the building under construction.

Drawings and views

• Approach to the clubhouse under the fanned tile roof
• Sports club, high-performance centre, and revenue spaces along the ribbon
• Badminton, table tennis, gym, squash, a player's room, and the pool
• The hallway, restaurants, cafe, and lounges, and the planted ribbons
• The hallway, restaurants, cafe, and lounges, and the planted ribbons
• The hallway, restaurants, cafe, and lounges, and the planted ribbons
• The hallway, restaurants, cafe, and lounges, and the planted ribbons
• The hallway, restaurants, cafe, and lounges, and the planted ribbons
• The hallway, restaurants, cafe, and lounges, and the planted ribbons
• Facade iterations
• Facade iterations
• Facade iterations
• The terraces and ramps, the ribbon at night, and the building under construction
• The terraces and ramps, the ribbon at night, and the building under construction
• The terraces and ramps, the ribbon at night, and the building under construction
• The terraces and ramps, the ribbon at night, and the building under construction
• The terraces and ramps, the ribbon at night, and the building under construction
• From above, the ribbon wrapping the ground on three sides
• Site development, frame by frame
• The pavilion curving around the main ground
• Form evolution, from a solid mass carved for the programme to the roof draped over it
• Site plan of the ground, with the building along three of its sides
• Badminton, table tennis, gym, squash, a player's room, and the pool
• Badminton, table tennis, gym, squash, a player's room, and the pool
• Badminton, table tennis, gym, squash, a player's room, and the pool
• Badminton, table tennis, gym, squash, a player's room, and the pool
• Badminton, table tennis, gym, squash, a player's room, and the pool
• Floor plans, level by level
• Floor plans, level by level
• Floor plans, level by level