London-based RISE Design Studio has secured planning approval to redevelop Sutton Churches Tennis Club with a hybrid mass timber pavilion targeting AECB CarbonLite New Build certification, in a scheme the practice intends as a replicable model for ageing community sports facilities across the UK.
That is according to RISE Design Studio, with the London Borough of Sutton granting consent on the strength of full council support and works on site expected to commence in early 2027.
Wood Central understands the existing clubhouse has been judged dilapidated and no longer viable, with the approved scheme delivering a single-storey pavilion that includes an enlarged clubroom, upgraded changing facilities, accessible WCs and integrated storage. The new building has been designed to grow with the club and serve its community for decades to come.
Structurally, the pavilion uses cross-laminated timber walls and glulam roof elements as a hybrid mass timber system, with off-site fabrication, trimming embodied carbon and compressing the on-site programme. The factory-finished wall and roof modules will be lifted into place over a tight community-club programme, where labour cost on a long stick-build would have eaten the budget.
Imran Jahn, Design Director at RISE Design Studio, said the typology was designed to restore architectural quality to grassroots sports infrastructure that has historically been built to a price. “Beautiful architecture should be accessible to all, not reserved for a select few,” Jahn said.
The pavilion will run on mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, air-source heat pumps, and rooftop photovoltaic panels, with airtightness across the envelope and the Passivhaus-informed AECB CarbonLite New Build certification target, covering both embodied and operational carbon. RISE said the certification is critical for community-led organisations working on limited budgets, with running costs decisive in their business cases.
Accessibility has been embedded from the outset rather than added as a downstream compliance fix, with the ground floor lowered to align with the surrounding landscape, making the entire pavilion step-free. The approach is designed to make the facility welcoming to players, families and visitors with mobility needs without bolting on ramps after the fact.
It comes as Wood Central reported a global wave of mass timber commercial and community construction through 2025 and 2026, from Denmark’s TRÆ tower clad in upcycled wind turbine blades through to a wave of CLT and glulam projects across London, with grassroots sport one of the few building typologies still tied to ageing, inefficient stock.
The site has been organised through a linear zoning strategy that runs from a western recreational landscape, through a central social hub, to an eastern service block at the boundary. The clubroom sits at the heart of the plan, oriented northwards to frame views across the tennis courts and maintain a strong visual connection to the sport.
A restrained palette of timber, metal and glass sets the building lightly within its setting, with vertical timber cladding softening its mass and a standing seam metal roof providing shelter and shading through a generous overhang. A vibrant red roof finish references the tiled roofs of the surrounding homes, and a central linear rooflight reduces the building’s reliance on artificial lighting.
Jose Dengra, Senior Architect at RISE Design Studio, said early-stage coordination had been the single largest determinant of the scheme’s deliverability against the AECB benchmark. The pavilion “meets high environmental and accessibility standards while responding carefully to its context,” Dengra said.
To the east, the ancillary block has been designed as a discreet acoustic buffer for neighbouring residents, with high-level windows maintaining privacy without compromising daylight inside. The arrangement is one of several touches RISE argues should be designed in from the start in community sports facilities.
Jackie Halls, of the New Clubhouse Committee at Sutton Churches Tennis Club, said the existing facility had become an active drag on participation and inclusion. “Our old clubhouse has become a real barrier and is holding the club back,” Halls said.
Works at Sutton Churches Tennis Club are expected to commence in early 2027, with the scheme set to stand as RISE Design Studio’s first piece of community sporting infrastructure and, the practice argues, an exemplar for what a modern community-focused clubhouse can be.
