Grand Slam In Madrid
SYNOPSIS.
The multipurpose sports complex for the Manzanares River Park should not be restricted to resolving a facility for Grand Slam tennis tournaments. It should be a place and a construction where one feels part of a community. For this reason, the proposal envelops, in the form of a flower, not only the players but also the spectators, and provides glimpses of the park between the tiers. It regards sport, nature and citizens as something that should take the same shape. A flower that always grows, a gigantic Olympic cauldron whose flame is fed by a community dream: the 2012 Olympic Games.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION.
Opposite a park that takes the shape of geometricised nature, in which nature is disguised with a superimposed geometry, the proposal for the Grand Slam sports complex in the Manzanares River park, behaves in a different way; it is not a geometric construction that colonises space but rather nature that provides the architecture with its forms. The proposal tries to state frankly what is being built and what a park should be: undisguised or uncolonised nature.
A large platform becomes the area for events; inhabited in a number of ways as a zone that can host changing uses. A flower (a world) emerges above, with petals that embrace the grandstands. Tiers that have not neutralised any contact with the outside, but somehow give the space shelter with the sliding roof, enabling it to host a variety of events. A space where the series of petals are covered, turning a horizontal space into a vertical space. The rest of the constructions are placed beneath the platform: the elite performance centre, the tennis school, the TV studios, the medical service, the car park etc. The height differences are used to reach the same plane as the city, with the grandstands facing the park- a massive lookout instead of being just a place to watch tennis matches.
