The December 2008 issue of Wired magazine has a spread on the new Oslo Opera House and how many of it’s features seem to have been designed with skateboarders in mind. They quote Alejandro Zaera-Polo of London’s Foreign Office Architects, “We have this fascination with buildings becoming topography, and skateboarders have that physical experience.”
Wired thoughtfully provides a diagram of the kinds of moves you might try on different parts of the building. Alas, I don’t see anything for vert skaters. They should have hired Zaha Hadid.
Photo of Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center grabbed from this person’s weblog.
7 comments
The MO
Last traced illustration in second image, Ryan Sheckler?
Prickly Pete
We (I) are call ritical when some non-skater architect tries to design a skatepark, but when they do a skatable building or plaza that isn’t necessarily designed for skating we’re all over it. Man, I hope those f@kers in Oslo don’t do one of those prefab skatable opera houses. Just bight the f@king bullet and get Grindline or someone who knows what they’re doing.
kvon
The real fascination of classic “Street Skating” was to successfully ride something that was NOT designed for skating. A world designed by Grindline, though incredibly skateable might lack serendipity. However If architects study flow from great skateparks they might learn new things about human movement. The fact that this building was not designed by a skatepark company (maybe not designed for skating) but possibly with skateboarding in mind suggests an air of easter egg mystery. Intriguing! … and crowded!
DaddyYo
I asw this in Wired and automaticaly wondered how long it was going to take before the skatestoppers are going to be installed.
I guess all it will take is a borad crashing into some expensive glass or spearing a pedestrian. Maybe a little graffti on those nice concrete walls would look nice.
Let’s keep an eye out for how long it will take to ban skaters from this building.
conahan
Yeah, I hear marble is soft. I bet they won’t like the edge damage. You have to do more than talk to skaters, you need to get out there and check it out.
KC
The bikers are gonna destroy that place.
I mean that in a negative, destructive type of way, not, “hey, look at johnny rad, he’s destroying this place!”
DaddyYo
KC Says:
November 24th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
The bikers are gonna destroy that place.
I mean that in a negative, destructive type of way, not,