Game, set and matching trees

For anyone addicted to the excitement of tennis tournaments, the greatest attractions are the four Grand Slam tournaments held throughout the year.

The earliest of these is the Australian Open, held in January. The 2023 Open in Melbourne had a bonus for those lucky enough to attend in person: a portable fabric canopy that held sway in the Grand Slam Oval, the main entertainment area of the Australian venue.

Six giant tree-like shade structures encircled the food and beverage setting, providing “a comfortable area for patrons to stay, eat and spend money … whilst watching games on the big screens,” states Pattons, the designer, fabricator and installer of “The Organic Tree” pavilion based in Sydney, Australia.

The AO2023 project brief specified the structures be temporary, put in place in less than 10 days on-site and disassembled after the event in less than 10 days. Specs also required the design not be dependent on any excavation or concrete footings “to prevent any sign of it being erected after it has been removed.”

The fabric elements had distinctive patterns (black PVC cut and sewn onto light-colored 70% shade cloth segments) prior to seaming the larger tree-form frames. These block-out PVC patterns projected onto the grass below during the day and “the light base cloth provided great projection capabilities for lighting of the structures” at night.

When the AO2023 finished, the Organic Tree had met its goals providing excellent shade coverage with an aesthetic impact that was “visually beautiful in daylight … then transformed into a light show at night.”