A Farmhouse Multi-Sport Paradise

The Doon Valley is made for this kind of afternoon. Sal forests on the ridgeline, the valley floor opening wide below, and tucked inside a private estate with mature trees on all sides — a Blue basketball court catching the late sun. A Green badminton court sits forty feet to the east. Both courts have a spectator pavilion and a garden that was already there when we arrived. The two large sal trees at the eastern boundary? Still standing. We built around them. That turned out to be the best call we made on the entire project.

The owner's brief was four words: resort quality, permanent finish. He had spent a weekend at a hill property in Mussoorie and come back with a clear picture in his mind — a sports area built into the landscape, not dropped onto it. Proper seating, floodlights, enough space to host people comfortably. His estate had the room. Extended family gathered most weekends through the cooler months. His children had grown up playing basketball in the driveway. The driveway wasn't enough anymore.

Three things he wanted. First, a full FIBA-spec basketball court — Blue, properly lined, not a recreational backyard setup. Second, a badminton court alongside it for the children and the older family members. Third — and this mattered just as much — both courts had to look like they belonged there. Not like sports equipment dumped in leftover space, but as permanent features of a well-planned estate. One firm instruction: the two sal trees at the eastern boundary were not to be touched.

Colour selection on a private estate is a different conversation from a school or club. The owner had a photograph of the view from his veranda — the tree line, the garden, the hills beyond. He wanted the courts to sit inside that view, not take it over. Blue for the basketball court: strong and clearly a sports surface, but cool enough against the green backdrop to hold the landscape's character. Grey run-off on both courts, creating a clean visual boundary. Green for the badminton zone — specifically picked to echo the shade of the sal trees along the eastern boundary, so that from the veranda both courts read as part of the same composition rather than two separate intrusions.

The spectator pavilion — a roofed timber-and-stone structure with three rows of seating, built by the owner's own contractors — was planned alongside our court layout. We gave the pavilion contractor our court-edge setback dimensions before the pavilion design was finalised, so it could be sited to align with the kerb line. That coordination produced a complex that looks, from the outside, like it was always one single considered design.

On a private estate installation of this scale, the perimeter is not a minor detail. Kerbs lock the tile field against edge movement under lateral playing load. They give the court a finished boundary that separates a permanent installation from something that just looks temporary. For a client who wants to look at this court for fifteen years without it shifting, the kerb system is what makes everything else hold.

Basketball court (120ft × 60ft): male kerbs on two adjacent sides = 120 + 60 = 180 pieces. Female kerbs on the remaining two sides = 180 pieces. Total: 360 kerb pieces + 4 corner pieces. Badminton court (52ft × 25ft): male kerbs = 52 + 25 = 77 pieces. Female kerbs = 77 pieces. Total: 154 kerb pieces + 4 corner pieces. Combined across both courts: 514 kerb pieces + 8 corner pieces — a perimeter that holds both tile fields in place under any playing condition.

The first full family weekend on the courts started at nine in the morning and went past sunset. The children had claimed the badminton court within minutes. The adults' basketball game — meant to be a light warm-up — turned into three proper contested sets. Two neighbours who had been watching the construction from their side of the fence with obvious interest were invited over. Both have since become regular visitors on sports weekends.

Six months on, the courts are in use every weekend the family is at the estate. The weekday evenings — the owner shooting around solo after the floodlights come on at 6 PM, before dinner — were not something anyone had planned for. That use pattern just developed on its own. The owner has mentioned pickleball. He has the dimensions. When he calls, we will know exactly what he wants.

And the two sal trees? Root systems untouched. One of them now frames the corner of the basketball court in every photograph taken from the pavilion. The constraint we had to work around turned out to be the best composition decision on the whole project.