The Lawn Tennis Association needs year-round clay court practice facilities for players at national and international level. The new, elegant and innovative demountable rain screen uses lightweight ‘air-beam’ structural technology, that is the first of its type in the world.

The Lawn Tennis Association’s headquarters in South West London is the main centre for GB tennis coaching and training. Since its opening in 2007, it has become such a success that additional capacity is now needed on the specialist clay courts, which, at present, are unusable throughout the winter because of rain and wind.

The practice was commissioned for a research project to investigate temporary court covering options that would meet tight planning policy guidance of preserving the open character of the site and that provided a safe and usable clay court surface during the winter.

The canopy that evolved from the research was the result of close collaboration between George Stowell and the engineering team comprising of Arup and Airlight, to create a clear span demountable pneumatic fabric canopy supported by Y-shaped steel columns.