In the contemporary urban space, at all scales, we often find potential sites which are unused and overlooked. These can be found between building facades, standby building sites, parks, squares or water fronts. Some of these potential sites can only be used for a relatively short amount of time, before they are developed by subsequent plans, but in the meanwhile they could be rented or used on a loan basis. On the other hand, fitness and sport facilities are seldom found in city centres. Squash, for example, is a sport in high demand in high dense areas, and those that exist are hidden away in deep inside buildings or basements. There are about 200 squash courts in Denmark, approximately 18 of them in Copenhagen.
It is the aim of this project to satisfy these demands with a typology which is found somewhere between building and product. A modular structure, used at months at a time, that can be transported, put together, dismounted and stored with relative ease, while its modular structure offers flexibility in size, making the available area suit other sports or events.
Transparency is a key factor in this project. As such, the squash court would offer as much to the city as it would to the players. For the squash user, apart from a professional squash court, he/she would experience the city back drop on the back wall, and the blue sky above. Regarding the city, the transparency of the courts make the event a public phenomena, creating a dialogue between sport and urban space, a relationship often inexistent and hidden away from the public.
Architect David Garcia and industrial designer Martin Larsen collaborated in this proposal.
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