Archinect - News

New skateable furniture adds personal benefits a sense of 'pure gnar' to any office

2024-11-19T19:52:00-05:00

Believing "anytime is the right time to take a Skate Break," the Ontario-based designers known as the Zenga Bros. have produced what could be the ultimate furniture addition to any shred happy office space looking to add an eccentric touch.

Their new product line is aptly named 'Skate Brake' and fabricated by Christian and Benny Huizenga to incorporate different (and difficult) skating configurations that provoke a sense of "pure gnar."

Photo by Gordon Nicholas

The series consists of three different ramps (a desk, two modernist style lounge chairs, and a six-foot-tall lamp), a boardroom table, barrier bench, and a 11’x5’x8’ "Ramper Camper" micro house/electric truck complete with a wood stove and grindable bookshelf ledge.

Image courtesy Gordon Nicholas

"Skate Break is a project extracted straight from the dream realm by the Zenga Bros. and brought to reality through their craftsmanship. I’ve never had so much fun skating furniture," friend and former Olympic skateboarding competitor...

Knowlton School landscape architecture alum Bill Minadeo on his second Olympic skatepark design

2024-08-06T12:20:00-04:00

“We’ve done all the competitive events up to the Olympics so starting with Dubai this year and then through the Olympic qualifying series in Shanghai and Budapest,” he said. “There’s been a progression of design that goes through each of those different courses both in street and park that will ultimately lead up to the courses we’ve designed for Paris and the Olympics.”

Bill Minadeo, an OSU Knowlton School Class of 1991 landscape architecture alum, designed the first Olympic skateboarding park in Tokyo and the latest park and street courses in Paris. He said the park he created for this year’s competition, which is being staged outside the Place de la Concorde, was made “a little bit harder” for all 88 athletes while still retaining vital universal design characteristics. The Olympic skate park will be disassembled and reused in two permanent locations in Paris after the culmination of the medal round ends on August 11th.

Also of note, Team USA is participating this year without Alexis Sablone, the goofy-footed MIT School of Architecture alum who competed in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

A skateable testament to physics and form takes over the Centre Pompidou

2024-07-23T12:57:00-04:00

This summer, outside of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the museum’s famous forecourt area will be the site of a timely skatepark activation by local artist Raphaël Zarka.

His new Cycloïde Piazza installation is meant to connect young Parisian skate enthusiasts and forms a key part of the Cultural Olympiad preceding this year's games, as presented by Centre Pompidou curator Jean-Max Colard.

Image courtesy Raphaël Zarka

Harkening to the experimentations of Galileo and other astronomers and mathematicians as its primary reference, the centerpiece skateable "sculpture" was designed in unison with the architect Jean-Benoît Vétillard to carry several references to France's rich art history and architectural culture.

Image copyright Fred Mortagne

A polychromatic color palette quotes Le Corbusier's "Clavier de couleurs" keyboard cards from 1931. Constructivism and the works of painters such as Lyubov Popova also hold weight over the installation's presentation, helping it to serve as an "urb...

Brooklyn group opposes new Tony Hawk-backed skatepark: 'Pouring concrete is Stone Age'

2024-04-08T11:58:00-04:00

The city has construction plans for Mount Prospect Park, once the site of a lookout station for George Washington’s army. About 40,000 square feet of the 7.79-acre park are to be turned into one of the largest skateboarding spots on the East Coast. Some nearby residents are fighting the plan. [...] They say the poured-concrete skateboarding facility would take up precious green space in a city that does not have enough of it.

A total of four skatepark designs are scheduled to be built in the Bronx and Brooklyn, courtesy of The Skatepark Project (or TSP). Costs for a new park at the contested Brooklyn location are about $100,000.

The Mount Prospect Park location calls for 40,000 square feet worth of concrete to be poured, leading to local protests recently. Hayley Gorenberg of the group Friends of Mount Prospect Park told the Times, “Paving green space isn’t acceptable to the community, and it’s not the way for New York City to look forward to a more resilient future. It’s backwards thinking.”

Tony Hawk is also involved in Peterson Rich Office and OSD’s new adaptive reuse design for the Shepherd Gallery and Art Center in Detroit.

Skate park within former church burns down in St. Louis

2023-07-04T10:00:00-04:00

A four-alarm fire late Wednesday engulfed a towering historic church that had been converted into an indoor skatepark north of downtown St. Louis. No injuries were reported in the blaze at S, near Hogan and North Market streets. The cause of the fire remained under investigation as of 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

The fire is believed to have started in the church rectory before it spread to where the skatepark is. The German Gothic church at the St. Liborius Parish Complex in the city’s St. Louis Place neighborhood was originally constructed in 1889. The building was declared a city landmark in 1975 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 before it closed in 1992. The current owner of the church, Dave Blum, purchased it in 2012, which was followed by its renovation into a skate park named Sk8 Liborius in 2016.

Video courtesy SK8 Liborius/YouTube

The former church had become a sanctuary for St. Louis’ skater community as one of the few dedicated skating locations in the city. Skate ramps, notably a 40-foot miniature ramp in the center, graffiti, and murals replaced what were once pews.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sk8 Liborius / The LUAS 501c3 (@sk8liborius)

It remains unclear what the cause of the blaze was. Blum is working with fir...

Tony Hawk enters the metaverse with 'largest virtual skatepark ever made'

2022-07-19T19:13:00-04:00

After conquering the X Games and video games, Tony Hawk has set his sights on his next frontier: the metaverse. The legendary skateboarder this week announced plans to partner up with The Sandbox — an online game built on the ethereum blockchain where players can spend cryptocurrency to buy virtual land — to build the “largest virtual skatepark ever made,” the company said in a Wednesday press release.

Called Tony Hawk LAND, the virtual space is being developed through a partnership between Tony Hawk Inc. and The Sandbox. NFT production company Autograph will design purchasable avatars based on Hawk, along with his most iconic skateboards, equipment, and apparel, including a digital replica of the skateboard he used at the X Games in 1999.

Screenshot of the ramp-building feature. Putting those CAD skills to good use!

“I have been a fan of new technology all of my life — from the first videogames and home computers with CGI capabilities — so I am fascinated by the metaverse, and excited to bring our culture into the virtual landscape of The Sandbox,” skateboarding pioneer and entrepreneur Tony Hawk said in a statement.

Other recent metaverse creations and proposals that made the Archinect news included a virtual version of Liberland by Zaha Hadid Architects, BIG's virtual HQ for Vice, Grimshaw-designed blockchain spaces for pax.world, and this NFT of the Tower of Babel by Dewan.

Pr...

Hollaway’s F51, the first multi-story skatepark, looks to build positive support for the local youth culture

2022-03-08T18:38:00-05:00

The homegrown regeneration of a once-neglected industrial area on the edge of Kent, England is underway after Hollaway Studio revealed plans for a dynamic new “layered” public skatepark called F51.

Billed as a full-tilt “adrenaline building,” the three-story structure includes a boxing gym and rock climbing wall in addition to the skateparks and was commissioned by the local Roger De Haan Charitable Trust to provide area youths with the “freedom and the opportunity to push both physical and mental boundaries within a safe space away from screens.”

Flow Floor. Image courtesy Matt Rowe © F51

Located in the heart of the seaside community’s Creative Quarter, Hollaway’s collaboration with renowned skatepark designers Maverick will replace an existing facility with a new tiered experience that allows users to utilize the space in a top-down way that increases in intensity as their skills and abilities build.

Bowl Floor. Image courtesy Matt Rowe © ...

Alexis Sablone: an MIT architecture graduate with hope for Olympic gold

2021-07-26T15:10:00-04:00

Alexis Sablone is bringing her knowledge of architecture to the Olympics, though not in the way you might expect from a professional artist with degrees in the subject from MIT and Columbia.

The 34-year-old Connecticut native represents the US during this year’s delayed Tokyo Olympic Games, joining the inaugural skateboarding team on their quest for gold.

Sablone, who has been skating since she was 10, is able to compete this year because of a rule that allows Olympic hosts to add different “demonstration” sports to the games every year. The three-time X Games gold medalist has dominated the professional skateboarding circuit since her debut in 2002, earning sponsorships from Converse and wheelmaker Dial Tone along the way.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Alexis Sablone (@suminaynay)

The goofy-footed skater finished her Master’s at MIT in 2016 after using earnings that she made on the pro skate tour to continue her study of the discipline begun while...

California's concrete skateparks come alive in a new photography book

2019-09-12T20:30:00-04:00

Released this month, California Concrete: A Landscape of Skateparks, takes the birthplace of skateboard culture and celebrates the dynamic landscapes created by Cali's expressive skateparks. Amir Zaki, creator of the book, is an artist and photographer who grew up skateboarding and has spent years photographing the built and natural landscape of California.

Tony Hawk, the legendary skateboarder, has contributed an essay to the new book. In it, he expresses how Zaki's photography captured his first memories of visiting a skatepark as a kid. Los Angeles-based architect Peter Zellner also contributed an essay in which he explores the origins of modern vertical skateboarding in the mid-1970s and the resulting skateparks that came out of that movement.

Ultimately, this book provides a beautiful collection of photography, architecture, and concrete landscapes, sure to capture the interested reader.

Skaters in London are trying to restore the Southbank Centre, a popular skating site

2017-08-08T13:37:00-04:00

The point is, skaters made that area safe; in the old days it was cardboard city. That is what skating does: it fills the cracks in society left by capitalist development … that is where skating exists. It’s like a fungus, it’s like moss, it just grows in the corners where no one else wants to be.

Back in 2004, two-thirds of a popular skateboarding site at the Southbank Centre in London was destroyed. In 2014, the final third of the site was on its way to closure when the property management changed hands. Seeing the turnover as an opportunity, a campaign—Long Live Southbank—began that proposed the reconstruction of the original site in its entirety. The effort has largely been successful; the Southbank Centre has agreed and the plans have been approved by the city.

It may not be so surprising that the Centre might re-welcome skaters as the Guardian explains, "the idea that skateboarders are the “shock troops of gentrification” has been well documented." Skateboarders are often willing to congregate in areas that others do not want to and in this way, can act as a neighborhood watch that in time, allows others to feel safe in the space as well. Now, the only thing standing in the campaign's way is raising the funds necessary—around £790,000—for restoration.

...

Architecture in the age of transparent hostility

2016-06-27T15:14:00-04:00

With the growing trend towards hostile architecture now openly admitting its political incentives, are we in an age of transparent hostility? [...] Whereas other instances of hostile architecture are marked by their deliberate obscurity, the Camden Bench was developed, constructed and deployed in plain sight, making it an all too visible reminder of persistent negligence, raising the question: will hostile architecture become an accepted feature of the built environment?

Moscow skaters reclaiming hidden spaces on top of Soviet-era buildings

2015-09-03T13:28:00-04:00

Moscow's landscape is filled with Soviet-era buildings, many of them shuttered after the privatisation programme of the Nineties. Built for the people's benefit, they are now shut away off from public access, patrolled by security guards, most of whom never dream of exploring the upper floors. But it is the roof of the Moscow pavilion that brings us here. Because of its concave shape the roof looks like a giant skate ramp. My friends and I want to see if it can perform like one too.

Head over to Calvert Journal for many more stunning photos by Pasha Volkov.

In other daring-Russian-kids news on Archinect:

The New Museum launches new skateboard shaped as the SANAA-designed museum building

2014-07-30T19:03:00-04:00

As a nod to skate culture innovation, the New Museum in New York collaborated with U.S. skateboard manufacturer Chapman Skateboards to create a limited-edition skate deck shaped as the iconic staggered-block building that was designed by Japanese firm SANAA.

Inspired by a New Museum Store window installation by Canyon Castator and Richard Duff from 2012, the Chapman x New Museum skateboard is handcrafted from Canadian Hardrock Maple wood featuring a high-gloss paint mix. Only 150 of the skateboards were produced. Retailed at $125, they're available for purchase at the New Museum store or online.

Check out the video below to see the board in action.

See more skate-related posts here.

Another perspective on architecture

2014-06-05T19:13:00-04:00

Architectural anomalies which delight skaters, as captured by Spain’s journeyman snapper.

Skate this: Limited edition Rem Koolhaas Flag Deck

2013-12-09T14:35:00-05:00

While collaborations between architects and skaters aren't too rare, the symbiosis typically happens in the realm of ramp/rail/ledge/obstacle design. To have an architectural heavyweight like Rem Koolhaas come out and give his blessings to a skateboard deck design, which pays homage to OMA's Museum Park in Rotterdam, is a rather seldom event.

Here's the complete story we've received from NL-based skateboarding brand Dufarge:

"The Dutch designers from surf inspired skatebrand Dufarge produced a skateboard deck that honours their favourite local skate spot. Part of OMA's Museum Park-scheme in Rotterdam, the spot, also known as 'Rem's Flag', features a 150 meter stretch of brightly coloured stripes: a collossal version of OMA's 'EU Barcode'."

"The EU Barcode was designed in 2001 by the OMA think tank AMO to represent the European Union as "the common effort of different nations, with each state retaining its own cultural identity while sharing the advantages of acting tog...

Big Air: Designing the World's Best Skate Parks

2012-07-03T18:01:00-04:00

Anyone who has ever walked through an urban center and seen preteens careening off railings and steps can attest to the fact that skateboarding is an occupation marked by creativity. When a city wants to build a park to contain its resident skaters, it turns to California Skateparks, one of the best skate park designers in the world.

Not Your Mama's (Skateboard) House

2011-07-12T18:03:00-04:00

Remember your mama always telling you not to skateboard inside the house? Well, think again, mom: Francois Perrin of LA-based Air Architecture has shared with us some pretty impressive photos of his latest production, PAS House, a full-scale, 753.5-square foot prototype for a house he is currently designing in Malibu, CA for former pro skateboarder and founder of Etnies footwear, Pierre-André Senizergues (PAS).

The prototype, fully equipped with sofa, bed, furniture from the Skate Study House collection and even kitchen appliances, was just recently part of the exhibition Public Domaine/Skateboard Culture at la Gaite Lyrique, a new museum in Paris. For the 25th birthday celebration of Etnies, their team of pro skaters did a demo session in the prototype.

The complete residence, where everything in the house is skateable, will measure 2,200-square feet and will to be located in a site overlooking the Pacific at the top of Malibu.

The concept was envisioned by Senizerguesa...