Architects: KANITarchitects
Year: 2026
Photography: Mike Kanitpat
Contractor: 2W Sustainable & Decor Limited Partnership
Lighting Consultant: Moon Sangphrachan Co., Ltd.
Client: Papaya Pickleball Co., Ltd.
City: Bangkok
Country: Thailand

Papaya Pickleball Club is a renovation project in Bangkok that transforms a former football field into an air-conditioned indoor pickleball venue while retaining the spatial qualities associated with outdoor play. Designed by KANITarchitects, the project responds directly to the city’s high temperatures, intense sunlight, and year-round humidity by introducing a carefully insulated enclosure that supports thermal comfort, air filtration, and competition-grade lighting. The courts are wrapped with masonry at the lower level and insulated metal panels above, while new roof insulation is integrated with the existing structure to improve environmental performance. Rather than treating the area between the club and the courts as a simple passage, the design reworks it into a social and functional threshold with seating, planting, steps, and open platforms for spectators and players. Material choices, including orange terracotta brick, glass block, and orange safety netting, reinforce continuity across the site and establish an architectural language that balances enclosure, transparency, and the familiar atmosphere of an outdoor sporting environment.

Papaya pickleball club / kanitarchitects

The Papaya Pickleball Club project’s most compelling achievement lies in the way it negotiates contrast: enclosure without isolation, climate control without detachment, and renovation without erasing the site’s informal character. Instead of presenting the courts as sealed interiors, KANITarchitects frames them as part of a broader club environment, where play, observation, and pause are choreographed within one continuous setting. This approach gives equal importance to the edges of the sport, acknowledging that contemporary recreational architecture often depends as much on social occupation as on the game itself.

In Bangkok, where outdoor activity is shaped by persistent heat and strong daylight, the conversion of a football field into six pickleball courts required more than a technical upgrade. The design addresses these environmental conditions through a layered envelope strategy. Masonry walls define the lower portions of the courts, while insulated metal panels complete the upper enclosure. Above, additional roof insulation is introduced over the existing structure and selectively integrated with new construction, creating a tempered interior suited to extended daytime use. Air conditioning, filtration, and precisely calibrated lighting allow the venue to support both casual and competitive play. Lighting is handled with notable discipline. Court illumination is calculated to meet the demands of the sport, while adjacent seating and circulation zones are lit more discreetly so that fittings do not intrude into players’ sightlines. This separation of visual comfort from technical performance reflects an understanding of how sports architecture must function at the level of bodily perception, not simply equipment standards.

A significant spatial shift occurs in the area between the club and the courts. What might otherwise have remained a corridor becomes an active intermediate landscape that absorbs multiple forms of use. Tiered seating, steps, planted edges, and a flexible open platform provide room for spectating, waiting, warming up, or informal gathering. In doing so, the project reorganizes the relationship between building and court, transforming access into occupation and giving the club a stronger communal identity. Above this threshold, a new steel structure extends from the existing roof and slopes across the connecting zone. Suspended beneath it, lightweight netting introduces a porous layer that softens the architectural intervention and recalls the visual language of sport. Openings within this overhead system permit natural daylight to filter into the space, helping the interior maintain an ambient connection to the outdoors. The replacement of former aluminum-framed sliding doors with frameless glazing further strengthens this sense of continuity, allowing broader views between enclosed and shared spaces.

Material selection plays an important role in binding the renovation to its context. Orange terracotta brick establishes visual continuity with neighboring buildings, while glass blocks at the ice bath and restrooms bring daylight into deeper interior areas that might otherwise feel sealed off. The orange plastic safety net, reinterpreted as facade, partition, and suspended element, becomes more than a practical accessory. It acts as a lightweight architectural device, producing shadows, texture, and degrees of transparency that subtly evoke the atmosphere of open-air play.

Papaya Pickleball Club ultimately demonstrates how a sports renovation can expand beyond functional conversion to become a more nuanced architectural proposition. By rethinking enclosure, circulation, and material expression together, KANITarchitects creates a venue that responds convincingly to Bangkok’s climate while preserving the looseness and visual openness associated with an outdoor game. The result is a sports environment that is both controlled and lively, technically resolved yet socially generous.