Street and city
Sports court
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A flat, bounded space for playing sports, from the village soccer field to the neighborhood multi-sport court.
Solves
What it solves
It makes room for play, sport and encounters between generations. In many towns it is the social center of the community.
Today
Place it within the neighborhood with good night lighting, stands or benches in the shade, drinking water and step-free access. Open it to several sports and ages.
Common mistake
Surrounding it with tall fencing and padlocking it, which leaves it empty most of the day.
Tomorrow
With light roofs and good drainage the court can be used in heavier downpours. Open at night with directed lighting and hours agreed with neighbors, it gives young people a place of their own without disturbing the neighborhood’s rest.
Where it comes from
- 1Mesoamerica Paso de la Amada, Pacific coast of Mexico, around 1400 BC
The oldest known ballcourt is there, and later these courts were part of the monumental center of many cities. - 2Andean world Andes, of diffuse origin
The Spanish word cancha comes from the Quechua kancha, enclosure. - 3Costa Rica towns and cities, 20th and 21st centuries
Soccer fields, almost always called plazas, are social and cultural meeting points for each community.
Masters
- Lina Bo Bardi SESC Pompéia, São Paulo, Brazil, 1986
She stacked the sports spaces in concrete towers linked by walkways within a neighborhood cultural center. She teaches that the court can be part of the city’s daily life and not a separate lot.
Appears in the routes
See also
Also in Street and city
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.