Canoe Lake Leisure are investing considerable time and money in the existing leisure facilities at Canoe Lake on Portsmouth and Southsea’s seafront. Four new all-weather tennis courts have already been completed and the 12 existing grass courts are being refurbished to international standards. The current tennis pavilion has been derelict for a number of years and PAD were approached to design a new pavilion which addresses both sets of courts and provides a permanent new base for the Tennis Club. The building will also host a wide range of sports and community classes for all ages throughout the year. The Pavilion’s textured masonry ground floor roots the building, reflects its urban setting and presents a hardwearing façade to this exposed site. Large openings allow views into and through the building from the public footpath enable a visual connection to be established across the wider site. All glazing at ground floor has the ability to be secured at night through finely detailed, sliding mesh shutters which slide into recessed brick pockets. The pavilion’s first floor viewing gallery is set against mature trees to the south of the site and designed to be as unobtrusive, transparent and delicate as possible. A slim butterfly roof floats above the largely glazed first floor, reducing the buildings mass and creating covered outdoor seating space. PAD have worked closely with both the client and Local Planning Authority to develop a high quality proposal suitable for this highly prominent site within Southsea Seafront Conservation Area. Continued dialogue with the Planning Authority enabled any queries to be addressed early in the design process and the response from locals has been highly complementary.