The sports field has become a vibrant new kind of playground
The sports fields are among the most standardized spaces in the city. Their dimensions are fixed, their markings are universally recognized and their purpose is clear long before anyone steps on them. Whether in Paris, Accra, Shanghai or Los Angeles, a basketball or tennis court speaks the same visual language, made up of painted arcs, boundary lines, circles and rectangles that have changed little over time.
Over the past decade, artists, architects and designers have repeatedly returned to the sports field to explore what happens when one of the city’s most mundane infrastructure projects becomes a space for experimentation. Some of their works transform the painted terrain into monumental graphic compositions, others rethink the way stadiums are constructed and inhabited, while a growing number extend the typology beyond sports altogether.
Pigalle basketball court by ILL-studio (read more here) | image by Alex Penfornis
it started with paint
Pigalle’s Court Duperré, completed in collaboration with Ill-Studio, embraced the existing geometry of the court. The basketball marks dissolved into gradients of pink, blue and violet that climbed the surrounding walls, turning the entire site into a single graphic composition. Unlike a mural visible from the street, the court asked for participation. Its composition changed through movement as players traversed the slopes, spectators gathered at its edges, and photographs taken from the surrounding balconies transformed the venue into one of the most recognizable public images of the decade. When Pigalle returned to renovate the court again in 2020, the intervention acknowledged a neighboring basketball court that had become part of contemporary design culture.
Pigalle opened the door for a growing number of artists to consider the field as a pictorial medium. Each approached it differently, extending the experimentation beyond the bold gradients that first attracted international attention. The movement has also been shaped by organizations working exclusively at the intersection of design and sport. Since 2014, Project Backboard has partnered with artists across the US to transform neighborhood basketball courts into permanent public art, proving that creative backboards are part of a growing international wave.
Pigalle basketball court by ILL-studio, renovation 2020 (read more here) | image by Alex Penfornis
In Arkansas, British artist Lakwena transformed a community basketball court into a vibrant field of color and affirming messages, inviting local communities to see the space as something shared and celebratory. Elsewhere, American artist Victor Solomon introduced an entirely different narrative. Literally Balling’s South Los Angeles court was inspired by the Japanese practice of kintsugi, where broken ceramics are repaired with gold lacquer. Gold lines broke the playing surface like repaired cracks, suggesting that basketball courts, like neighborhoods themselves, carry stories of loss, resilience and renewal. A similar interest in play as a social catalyst runs through Yinka Ilori’s Creative Courts initiative, which combines bold color palettes with participatory design to encourage communities to reclaim neighborhood sports facilities as civic public spaces.
Katrien Vanderlinden’s basketball court in Abu Dhabi borrowed the intricate geometry and decorative richness of Middle Eastern carpets, replacing the visual language of street graphics with references rooted in local craft traditions. In Belgium, Drukdoenerij approached the stadium almost as a large-scale piece of graphic design, using bold typography, saturated colors and abstract forms to transform an otherwise ordinary pitch into a landmark.
Although their aesthetics differ dramatically, these interventions work with the existing geometry of the field, allowing painted circles, arcs and boundary lines to become active elements in larger compositions.
Celtics Rug by Katrien Vanderlinden (read more here) | Image courtesy of Katrien Vanderlinden
then the architects changed the court itself
As the artists transformed the stadium into a graphic canvas, the architects turned their attention to the space itself, its materials, landscape, and its relationship to the communities it serves.
At Deroche Projects’ community tennis court in Ghana, sport becomes inseparable from architecture. Built using prefabricated components of grafted earth, the project draws directly from local construction knowledge, positioning the court as a piece of everyday infrastructure that supports community life alongside tennis.
A similar extension of the typology appears in SOBA’s sports park in Huachiao, China, where the architects design an entire landscape around movement. Basketball courts, running tracks, seating areas and flowing canopies come together in a continuous public environment, encouraging visitors to wander between sport, leisure and everyday social life.
Kintsugi Court from Victor Solomon (read more here) | image by Shafik Kadi
The discussion extends even further in the Frontones Danzantes of 2050+, presented during the Concéntrico 2026 in Logroño. The Milan-based practice developed a series of mobile fronts inspired by the traditions of Pelota Vasca, where architectural surfaces become active elements of the game. Installed in a parking lot, the structures temporarily transform a space dedicated to cars into one dedicated to play. Their mobility allows the site to be constantly reconfigured, suggesting that sports infrastructure can be lightweight, adaptable and capable of reclaiming underutilized urban spaces rather than occupying new ones.
Unlike the resulting painted stadiums, these works suggest that the sports field is a spatial context capable of accommodating new ideas about construction, ecology and public life.
Backyard Community Club by DeRoche Projects (read more here) | image from Julien Lanoo
when the court became something else
Ultimately, some projects borrowed the stadium’s unmistakable geometry to explore entirely different paths of participation, performance, and public space.
Asad Raza converted the deconsecrated church of San Paolo Converso in Milan into a functional tennis court. Visitors were invited to play inside the installation. The familiar rituals of sport took place beneath Renaissance frescoes, creating an encounter that was equal parts theatrical and absurd.
A similarly unexpected juxtaposition arose at Château de Versailles, where Playgones temporarily introduced a brightly colored basketball court into André Le Nôtre’s meticulously landscaped gardens. The intervention heightened the contrast between the typical geometry of the French landscape and the equally recognizable geometry of the basketball court, revealing surprising affinities between two seemingly unrelated spatial systems.
Huachiao Vibrant Sports Park (read more here) | image © Arch-Exist Photography
In Miami Beach, Playlab collaborated with Argentinian artisans Jessica Trosman and Emiliano Miliyo to transform discarded soccer nets into monumental textile installations for The ReefLine, suggesting that sports equipment can carry cultural stories long after the match is over.
Evolution continues to expand beyond individual commissions. At Casa Axis, the artist residence founded by Felipe Pantone outside Valencia, the sports field becomes the center of an entire cultural program. The inaugural Casa Axis International Open replaces traditional rankings with an artist-based tournament, played on a course designed by MrKA and accompanied by an exhibition of works from the Muñoz Collection. The winning artist is asked to redesign the pitch for the next edition, turning the playing surface into an evolving mission.
Untitled (Dialogue Plot) by Asad Raza (read more here) | image © Andrea Rossetti
more than a place to play
The evolution from the painted gradients of Pigalle to the Casa Axis tournament suggests that the sports field has evolved into a platform for testing ideas about graphic design, architecture, participation and public life, without ever abandoning its original purpose. Unlike many forms of public art, these works are not complete until someone steps on them, introducing movement rather than observation, asking players, neighbors and passers-by to become part of the work itself.
Perhaps this is why the sports field has proved so compelling. It is one of the few public spaces that already belongs to everyone, and designers come simply to reveal the creative potential of someone that has been hidden in plain sight.
Creative Courts Canary Wharf London by | Ginka Ilori | image by Matt Alexander
Image courtesy of Felipe Pantone House of Axis
Playgones French style basketball court (read more here) | Image courtesy of City of Versailles / Pierrick Daul
Dancing Pediments by 2050+ (read more here) | image from Josema Cutillas
Big Goals by PlayLab (read more here) | image courtesy of Veronica Ruiz
This article is part of designboom’s Play chapter, which explores what happens when creators prioritize emotional warmth, vivid geometries, and tactical leisure. Discover more related stories here.
