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.