The site for CitySquash is tight, too long and too narrow for a sports facility layout. Rather than forcing a conventional solution onto an unconventional site, the building was conceived not as a linear sequence of courts, but as a compact world of squash organized around a shared center.

The courts were lifted to the second floor. This move made it possible to cluster four courts tightly together, a place where players could see one another, coaches could supervise multiple games at once, and the collective energy of the sport became part of the architecture.

This vital core—part circulation, part void, part stage—is the heart of the building. Conceived as an extension of the courts, it is where the building gathers itself. Arriving from the street, visitors move inward and upward through it. On the ground floor, the stair widens into amphitheater-like seating. Maple—the required surface of the squash courts—reappears on the walls and within the stair opening, visually and materially pulling the world of squash down into the main lobby.

The ascent is deliberately sensory. Sound travels downward through the vital core—the sharp echoes of balls striking walls above. Before seeing the games, you hear them. Upstairs, a floating mezzanine reinforces the core’s role as a shared observatory.