Dominique Perrault Architecture

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27 | 10 | 2020

Cover of the Suzanne Lenglen court / Winning project

French Tennis Federation – Paris

The agency is named winner for the coverage of the Suzanne Lenglen court, on the site of the Roland Garros tournament. The architectural project aims to bring added value to the site, in line with the work carried out previously with the roofing of the Philippe Chatrier court and the construction of the Simone Mathieu court. The project not only erects a roof, but also proposes a large-scale architectural ensemble whose silhouette is in dialogue with the existing building and its surroundings.

The pleating of the Suzanne Lenglen court

 The site of the Roland-Garros tournament, between city and nature, is located in the heart of the Ile-de-France metropolis, between the Bois de Boulogne, Paris and Boulogne-Billancourt. Without being the central court, the Suzanne-Lenglen court, the façade of the Roland Garros site from the Boulevard d'Auteuil, is located in its central walking axis.

 The project is intended to be pure and without artifice, its shape resulting from the structural efforts put in place. The structure of the new roof appears to levitate above the court, this relationship allowing the integrity of the existing volume to be preserved. It defines a U-shaped structure, open towards the peaks of the Bois de Boulogne to the north. Pure, minimal, fully visible, the new roof is made by a fine assembly, on a concrete structure, of steel elements.

Positioned above the existing stands, with a sufficient overhang, it comprises a mobile part, made of canvas, and a fixed part that provides support for the mobile part and integrates all the equipment necessary for its deployment and folding. The mobile cover consisting of canvas stretched by cables attached to the structure will fold up on the south side by the movement of a mobile buton in a horizontal movement. The simplicity of the elements used and their repetitions create a new balance that assumes the addition of a new element without presenting anything superfluous.

In haute couture, pleating refers to the art of folding a piece of fabric. For a garment, this technique allows great freedom of movement with style and elegance. The Suzanne-Lenglen court cover project draws its sensibility and originality from this know-how, proposing an architecture like a pleat, deployed with delicacy and lightness in a solid case.


Images: ©Dominique Perrault Architecte/Adagp/RSI Studio/FFT

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