NetSide Padel Club

An indoor padel club set in open countryside on the rural edge of Crawley, with the courts housed under a single timber-clad building designed to read as an agricultural barn. A small clubhouse and outdoor seating area sit alongside it, with parking and landscaping arranged so the club works from the moment people arrive.

The barn approach is the decision the scheme rests on. A pitched dark roof, vertical timber cladding and rooflights running along the ridge give the building the proportions and materials of the farm buildings around it, while the glazed lower walls open the courts up to daylight and views out. It is a large building, but it sits in its setting the way a barn would, rather than as a sports hall dropped into a field.

In the countryside, the question isn’t only whether a building works, but whether it looks like it belongs. Here that meant keeping the form simple and the roofline unbroken, using natural timber that will weather into its surroundings, and holding the eaves low enough that the building settles into the landscape rather than standing above it.

The rest of the site follows the same thinking. Existing hedgerows are kept and reinforced, the car park is tucked to one side, and the clubhouse and terrace are kept small and low so the main building stays the focus. The result is a club that gives players a high-quality indoor court all year round, and gives the planners a building that fits its rural setting.