When the score of a tennis game reaches 40-40 we call it deuce.
Deuce may quite simply be defined as when the game is in a state where the quality of play from both players has made it indecisive. To win the game, one of the players now has to win by two points and break the symmetry. Deuce, the architectural project, does not aim towards breaking, but rather harnessing an architectural symmetry, where the spatial importance of players and spectators is in a constant state of deuce.
↑ Site axonometry render
↑ Site section: center courts
Next to the grand main entrance of the famous Vigeland sculpture park we find Frogner Tennis – one of the oldest sites for sports in Oslo, where the game of tennis has been played for over a hundred years. Frogner Tennis is still to this day one of the most popular sites for tennis in the city, but the facility has lost a lot of the elegance, grandeur, and order it once expressed. This project attempts to restore some of these qualities to the site, whilst also establishing a new importance and clearer presence of tennis in this area of the city. The building is a minimal and light steel structure, containing three interior courts with surrounding areas for spectatorship on two levels – drawing inspiration from the traditional indoor courts of the precursor to tennis: jeu de paume.
The walls on the second level are of a light polycarbonate material which diffuses the daylight – serving the players and spectators inside with ideal lighting conditions, as well as lighting up the city outside when the sun has set. The indoor central court connects to the café placed as an addition to the volume along the existing path going through the site. With a facade of folding glass doors, the café also directly connects to the exterior center court with surrounding amphitheater-like spectator area. This symmetrical configuration of program, in the project, attempts to facilitate the two main states of presence at a game of tennis: player and spectator. Both being equivalent parts to the spirit of the game.
In a relationship of deuce.
↑ Facade render
↑ Interior render: interior center court and spectator levels
↑ Axonomtery render: Construction
↑ Section: Interior center court
↑ Plan: First floor
↑ Plan: ground floor
↑ Exterior render: Entrance / pedestrian path
↑ Interior render: Club café / spectator area
↑ Exterior render: Exterior center court