Padel

OOIIO desi­gned a new Padel Courts complex at a fanta­stic loca­tion: Kite Beach, Dubai. 

Padel is a racquet sport invented in Mexico in 1969. In the US and Canada the sport is known as Paddle. It is curr­ently most popular in Hispanic American count­ries such as Argen­tina and Mexico as well as in Spain and Andorra, although it is now begin­ning to spread rapidly across Europe and other conti­nents.

Padel is typi­cally played in doubles on an enclosed court a third the size of a tennis court. Scoring is the same as normal tennis and the balls used are similar but with a little less pres­sure, the main diffe­rences are that the court has walls and the balls can be played off them in a similar way as in the game of squash and that solid, string­less racquets are used. The height of the ball being served must be at or below the waist level.

However, Padel is a brand-new sport to the Emirates and the client wants to present it to the whole country as a cool new way of having fun playing with friends, working out your body and taking care of your health.

The Kite Beach concept

OOIIO were asked to create a new and impres­sive Padel Complex in one of the best loca­tions one could imagine for a project like this: Kite Beach, on Dubai´s seafront. Kite Beach is the place where surfers and people who love sports go to relax and enjoy the wind and the great weather almost all year long.

Doubt to this nice climatic condi­tions and great stra­tegic loca­tion with a lot of sports enthu­si­a­stics all around, the archi­tects decided to create an open group of struc­tures: light enough to welcome passen­gers and allow players to enjoy the awesome views to the sea and beach. OOIIO don´t want to create this buil­ding as a generic closed container box. Not here, not if you want to show a new sport to ever­yone in this country.

This is why every Padel Court is surrounded by a big fancy shaped beam, cladded with light canes, appro­priate for a seafront loca­tion serving for several design goals:

• Catch the passen­gers’ views thanks to its cool shape
• The canes façade creates shadows and sun protec­tion
• The typical “big” sports centre is split up into several smaller centres, cheaper and easier to control clima­ti­cally. No energy will be wasted as HVAC will be swit­ched on and off, depen­ding on its use
• The beams also provide a perfect struc­ture to hung fabrics and totally close the courts during hot summer, lear­ning from local tradi­tional archi­tec­ture.

One new Padel Court concept to promote a new way of sports buil­dings, more related with sustaina­bi­lity and the natural seasons weather.