Tennis and Swimming Club
The I’On Club, situated in the heart of the I’On community, was a tired and underutilized space that needed refreshing to reflect its dynamic, diverse, well-travelled and design savvy members. We spent two years collaborating with the owners and a wider design team to cast an eye over developing a masterplan and to update the existing facilities and fabric, including the planning of new walkways and rookery, landscape architecture, walls and ground works.
Our brief was to encapsulate the best elements of a traditional tennis and swimming club. We took our inspiration from the 1920s, a time when things were well made, when people used clubs to pursue the very serious business of living life to the full. As we moved through the clubhouse, a series of bland, featureless rooms were transformed through warm, suffused colours and timeless good quality materials to subtly echo the surrounding landscape.
Interior architecture involved a collaboration between us, the owners and Andrew Gould of New World Byzantine, assisted by Tom Podhrazsky. To reflect the intimate scale and personal feel of the club, our team painstakingly accumulated memorabilia from the era including wooden tennis racquets, photography and prints, books and period cutlery. At the same time we were keen to reflect the club’s new branding, which we were also involved in developing alongside a great graphics team. A new dining area has created a welcoming and relaxing space for members to entertain guests, whilst a more casual Lido Bar provides the perfect spot for lazy drinks by the pool. Cabanas and further ancillary buildings are dotted throughout the club, ensuring everyone of all ages enjoys a relaxed stay.
The club owners’ desire to create a unique space proved the perfect opportunity for our range of bespoke furniture and fabrics. A pair of Studio Killian-Dawson three-seater Lartington sofas were commissioned for the clubroom, covered in our luscious Milford check. We built a long banquette for the dining room which creates a surprisingly intimate space to dine. Individual lights were commissioned from a variety of sources. A pair of our Hugo desks were designed to fit the glorious miniature scale Gatehouse pavilion designed by Bevan and Liberatos. One of them has now found its way to the new office of one of the creative team of the club.
Out of a cramped overflow attic space which was basically a storage closet we created a small guest suite. This meant carving out an intimate social space with an ensuite bathroom, and a kitchenette to serve the team and visitors, be it an afternoon bridge party or a bridal party to have a private space preparing for the wedding and a place to change for the reception.
A new clubroom upstairs afforded the opportunity to create a real haven from the bustle of modern Charleston. We were particularly fortunate to work with a team of carpenters who could make anything to our design, from a special card table and robust sideboards designed to hold cutlery crockery and special wine compartments, to bespoke whisky cabinets with numbered lockers each with its personal key. Here members can store their favourite dram, be it a 30-year-old Highland Malt or a special Louisiana Bourbon.
