10. Post 2000 Public Plaza – Innsbruk Landhausplatz

Overview

Architect: LAAC Architekten & Stiefel Kramer Architecture

Austrian design studio LAAC Architekten and Stiefel Kramer Architecture have completed this public plaza in Innsbruck, Austria, with an undulating concrete surface.Completed in collaboration with Christopher Grüner, The Landhausplatz square retains the site’s four monuments with the addition of new trees, benches, lighting, a fountain and drinking fountains.The huge concrete slabs swell upwards to frame these elements, with textured surfaces giving way to a smooth polished surface.Water is allowed to drain away through the gaps between the slabs and is absorbed on site.

Society

Before the transformation took place, the square’s atmosphere and spatial appearance was dominated by the facing facade of the Tyrolean provincial governmental building from the period of National Socialism, and by a large scale memorial that looks like a fascist monument – which in fact and in spite of its visual appearance is a freedom monument that shall commemorate the resistance against, and the liberation from National Socialism. The intervention aims to compensate for existing misconceptions and to reinforce the monument’s historical significance. The new topography of the square offers a contemporary and transformative base for the memorials and makes them accessible – physically and regarding a new perception.

Culture

Goal of the intervention at Eduard-Wallnöfer-Platz (Landhausplatz) was to create a contemporary urban public space that negotiates between the various contradictory conditions and constraints of the site and establishes a stage for a new mélange of urban activities characterised by a wide range of diversity. The realised project consists of a 9.000 square meter concrete floor sculpture.

Eduard-Wallnöfer-Platz was the largest but neglected public square in the centre of the city of Innsbruck in Tyrol, Austria. The site nevertheless kept a symbolic significance with the four memorials positioned there. Because of this ‘unplanned’ configuration of space the appropriation of the space by local skaters has become one of the plazas primary functions.

Planning

In the northern part of the square, the spacious flat area in front of the Landhaus is conceived as a generous multi-purpose event space providing the according infrastructure. A large scale fountain activates the expanded field and provides cooling-down in summertime. South of the liberation monument the topography features a variety of spatial situations for manifold utilisations. The texture of the concrete surface varies according the type of geometrical configuration. Beneath many trees the floor continuously merges into seat accommodations with a terrazzo-like polished finish. A subterranean garage was built in 1985.

The sculpture group of one of the monuments is integrated into the basin of a new fountain where water runs down steps cut into a slope. The shoal fountain and the water games in front of the Landhaus provide playground for children and cool down the climate in summer locally. There are drinking fountains in different heights for children and adults. The surface of the square is realised in modulated slabs out of in-situ concrete, joined by bolts that deal with shearing forces. Infrastructural elements for the organisation of events which can take place anywhere on the square are integrated in the construction of slab-fields of max. 100 square meter. Drainage of the whole square including the fountains is located completely at the open joints between the individual fields so that there is no drainage pit visible on the whole site. An innovative buffer system allows that – despite of the existence of a subterranean garage – all the appearing surface water drains away within the property.

Environments

The new topography sets a landscape-like counterpart to the surrounding. But it turns into an urban sculpture through its city context, its finish in concrete and trough its function. Accessibility and the layout of paths result from the modulation of the surface which deals with spatial constraints, functional requirements and with morphological considerations.

Pedestrians and users as well as the memorials in their role as protagonists on this new city stage allow for an operative public and open forum between main station and old town. The bright surface of the square functions as a three-dimensional projection field on which the protagonists together with the trees cause a high-contrast dynamic play of light and shadow during daytime. In front of this background the seasons are staged powerfully. Indirect light reflected from the floor sculpture directs the scenery at nighttimes.

09. Post 2000 Skate Park – Cairns Skatepark

Overview

Architect: Convic Design P/L

The Cairns Esplanade Skatepark is not only Australia’s largest all ages public sporting facility of its type, but an important national and international community resource challenging the perception of what skateparks are and how they can integrate into the public domain. The Cairns Esplanade Skatepark is the first skatepark of its kind blurring the lines between traditional skatepark infrastructure and landscape. Echoing the alignment of the new esplanade three skatepark plazas push through the landscape, rising to form and deform the upper tiers of the adjacent beach volleyball court viewing seat wall. Dissected by skateable paths, the plazas are connected back to the esplanade creating defined entry points to the facility. Perched and banked lawns arise in the wake of this concrete latticework, offering passive viewing and refuge areas able to be utilised for event days and competition, whilst addressing existing trees and services.

Adjoining an internationally recognised migratory wader bird habitat and in close proximity to a declared fish habitat area, the foreshore of the northern esplanade overlays soft marine clays requiring the area to be preloaded before excavation works could take place. A major influential factor in setting the levels of the skatepark bowls and in turn the whole facility was to avoid any disturbance of the underlying acid sulphate soil. Adhering to Councils philosophy of no net environmental impact – any detrimental impact is compensated by an equal or greater beneficial impact. As a non-traditional area of the landscape architecture, Convic Design is an international award winning design practice that contains a diverse mix of athletes and professionally qualified designers who work collaboratively on the likeminded goal of developing the most innovative, integrated design solutions for clients around the world. Convic Design would like to raise the Cairns Esplanade Skatepark as a example of New Directions In landscape Practice.

Society

The Cairns Esplanade Skatepark embraces sensitivity to social, cultural, historical, physical and natural context. The skatepark is part of the parkland reserve, not an intrusion to it. The designers embraced the need for the skatepark to add to the visual quality of this foreshore reserve. The Cairns Esplanade Skatepark is all ages’ public sporting facility of its type, but an important national and international community resource challenging the perception of what skateparks are and how they can integrate into the public domain

The Cairns Esplanade Skatepark is unique as it embraces the need to provide exciting innovative sporting infrastructure but also appreciates the importance of site and context. Firstly to be in such a high profile location creates a challenge to ensure that this sporting space compliments rather than detracts from the surrounding parkland context. To achieve this, Convic consciously focused on landscape integration as the driving force of the design.

Culture

The Cairns Skatepark comfortably sits as one of the major recreation features of the recently redeveloped Esplanade Parklands. It complements other major facilities including the adjacent beach volleyball courts, Muddy’s playground, Cairns swimming Lagoon and embraces the broader parkland environment in which it is placed. It meets council’s requirements for both a local level sporting space and tourist attraction – within the skate industry it is already considered Australia’s best skatepark and has attracted interest worldwide.

More than any other single components, Convic have been able to integrate a sporting facility into a broader parkland environment without hindering function. In fact, by taking this landscape approach, Convic have actually maximised skate/BMX/inline sporting opportunities. This park was recently awarded one the ‘Seven Skate Wonders of the World’ by Skate Park Guide 2006. Convic has been able to redefine skatepark provision, create a visually dynamic sporting space that compliments the broader parkland context in which it is placed and still ensure it is the most functional and popular skatepark in Australia.

Planning

Convic adopted WSUD principals in surface water disbursement with all plaza surfaces graded to expel any rainwater onto lawn area or garden beds, negating the need for any irrigation requirements, additional to this significant existing Vegetation was retained providing refuge from the elements.

Supporting the local ecosystem.

Adjoining the skatepark site is an internationally recognised migratory wader bird habitat and in close proximity to a declared fish habitat area, the foreshore of the northern esplanade overlays soft marine clays requiring the area to be preloaded before excavation works could take place. A major influential factor in setting the levels of the skatepark bowls and in turn the whole facility was to avoid any disturbance of the underlying acid sulphate soil. Adhering to Councils philosophy of no net

What makes the Cairns Skatepark work as a sporting space is the final implementation of the built work. Whilst the design is innovative and unique, it is the precise concrete finishing within the bowls what gives Cairns such a high reputation within the skateboarding/BMX community.

Bold simple path system that not only creates delineated entrances and a multitude of street skating opportunities throughout the space but also defines both the landscaped viewing areas and creates defendable articulated areas specifically for the bowls. In doing this we ensure these areas maximize safety and viewing opportunities.

Since completion the Cairns Esplanade Skatepark as received several awards:

AILA Victoria President's Award for Playground Design 2007.

Queensland State Winner of the national CCAA Public Domain Awards 2007.

Paths Commendation Award national CCAA Public Domain Awards 2007.

Environments

Largest skatepark in Australia in a high profile location. Site design approach where the connecting paths and integrated landscape actually form the design of the facility itself. Unique in skate facility provision to date, where traditionally the facility is designed and then landscape manipulated to contain the facility.

The space is essentially a series of interconnecting skateable paths that form a matrix, linking beach to car park, parkland to beach volleyball space. The adjacent boardwalk has then been used to generate internal skate runs, further connecting the space with the broader context. The resultant spaces created by the path system are then a mix of either defined active ‘bowl’ terrain or lawn refuge areas. As such the facility has both clearly defined articulated access (skate paths) throughout that knits to the boardwalk, parkland and car parking whilst also has clearly designated nodes of high contained activity (Bowl areas). Bowl skating is an activity undertaken in a contained space whilst street skating is about the journey. Convic has created a facility that embraces both and in doing so also improves safety with the separation of these different uses.

The lawn refuge areas are also unique to Cairns. With the crisscrossing paths providing a multitude of skating opportunities, the ‘left over’ lawn spaces create simple seating and viewing areas adjacent to the activity. They have also been designed to catch run off from the park to mitigate the need for significant irrigation. Trees planted within these lawn wedges also create shade for both participants and those watching the activity. In terms of the environmental impact – any detrimental impact is compensated by an equal or greater beneficial impact.

Infor used from the Convic website can be found at: http://www.convic.com/

08. Post 2000 Skate Park – Geelong Skatepark

Overview

Architect: Convic Design P/L

The Geelong Youth Activities Area (YAA) is a public recreational plaza at Western Beach on the waterfront adjacent to the CBD precinct of Geelong. The YAA provides the community with accessible infrastructure in the heart of Geelong. The YAA is integrated seamlessly with an adjacent under-10 play space and sits comfortably within the context of Corio Bay and the Geelong waterfront.

The YAA is an innovatively designed, flexible, multi-purpose outdoor youth-focussed area that contains open-air spaces suitable for a range of activities and events including markets, live music, art exhibitions, catwalk, dance, street theatre, BMX riding, basketball, skate boarding, interactive media, wireless internet and seating. The YAA covers an area of around 4,000m2 on the waters edge and future expansion of the area will include viewing terraces, a climbing wall and more pedestrian access points to the upper main road. The aim of the project was to provide young people with a venue, programs and activities that are accessible in location, choice and affordability and that encourage participation, social interaction, recreation and community inclusiveness.

This major public urban recreation space was delivered by the Urban Design Unit of the City of Greater Geelong, Convic Design and Canteri Brothers Constructions. Funding partners included the Federal Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government and the State Government of Victoria through the Department of Sport and Recreation and the Department of Victorian Communities. A donation towards the project was received from the Ford Motor Company.

Society

The park provides a diverse range of opportunities for sport, art, music, drama, markets, multimedia, displays & educational programs which reach a broad range of potential users.

The park was designed to respond to changing needs; to be evolutionary, ensuring cross- generational ownership and usage over time. The park of today will evolve into a park of the future. A number of strategies were applied to achieve this evolution, one of the most important being site selection.

The precinct offers a unique, non-threatening and highly personal space and is a practical solution to connecting young people with their community which in turn improves the wellbeing of all of residents and contributes in a positive way to the liveability of the city. The energy of the young users has been embraced by the wider community who drift in and out of the space. The YAA provides the community with accessible infrastructure in the heart of the city. It has been warmly embraced by the youth of Geelong who see it as their unique place. The asset has seen very minimal vandalism or anti-social behaviour.

With a score of 5/5 stars from the Australian Skate Park Guide, the Youth Activities Area at Western Beach is a high quality 'Barcalona style plaza' with great facilities and 'cutting edge design'. Described as 'easy on the eye and grouse on the grind' the Youth Activities Area at Western Beach is situated next to the children’s playground to the west of Cunningham Pier.

The YAA’s features include:

Open-air performance areas

Skating and boarding area

Sculptures

Unique LED lighting under the steps which make the stucture “glow” at night

Multimedia

A catwalk

Basketball practice area

Seating

Events are held here on the first Sunday of each month, and at various time throughout the year, and are generally free of charge.

Culture

An element in favour of the waterfront location was the fact that teenagers were poorly represented along the waterfront with most activities being targeted at families with very young children or licensed venues and restaurants for over 18’s. From our discussions with the youth focus groups, there appeared a strong desire to provide not only an evolutionary space, but a flexible one. To achieve a high degree of flexibility, the park was designed as a large terrace containing a myriad of different levels and planes cascading down an embankment, creating a large amphitheatre terminating at a large central performance area. Three large steel structures stand in the space. These sculptural steel forms contain sound, multimedia and lighting infrastructure including iPod connectivity, projector housing, event gantries, a basketball hoop and also provide shelter. Interspersed throughout the terraces are green zones to provide passive recreational space and visually break the expanse of concrete. Formal and informal seating is also provided for viewing and socializing.

Planning

Site works commenced in May 2008 and was completed by November 2008 for the official opening. Strong materials including concrete, steel and stone create a dramatic visual statement for this contemporary public space and ensures durability in a marine environment. Coloured concrete, exposed aggregate concrete and rusted steel combine in earthy tones during the day, but are transformed into a multidimensional environment at night by concealed red L.E.D. strip lighting under each concrete plane.

Traditional site selection methodologies were challenged, and rather than apply recreation models for a facility sitting in a public reserve where ‘like’ sporting infrastructure is normally placed, a more in-depth social model was explored. This model looked at where young people wanted to be and how the space in which they inhabit can be more engaging and be truly youth inclusive. Geelong youth were actively involved in the site selection, planning and design of the facility through focus groups, surveys, site visits and one-on-one meetings over a 2- year period. Without question, the site preferred by the group was either right in the CBD, or along the waterfront. The waterfront site was selected as the top location due to its proximity to the water, the city, shops, Deakin University and the transport hub.

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles were used whilst progressing the design phase of the project. CPTED relies upon the ability to influence offender decisions that precede criminal acts. This multi-disciplinary approach to deterring criminal behaviour through the design of the built environment was particularly relevant to this site as it has limited exposure to the main street above the site (Western Beach Road). All surfaces and materials used had to be robust, not only to ensure resilience in a marine environment, but to deter vandalism whilst providing a strong aesthetic. No fencing was used to retain clear site-lines into the park and “neck to knee” clearance zones were used in all landscaped areas to provide better active and passive surveillance for spectators and users.

The project has been recognised nationally for excellence, receiving the following awards to date:

Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, Winner, “Award of

Excellence in Landscape Architecture”, Annual Design Awards

2009

Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, Winner, “Victoria

Medal for Landscape Architecture”, Annual Design Awards 2009

Cement & Concrete Association of Australia, Public Domain

Awards, National Winner Precincts

Cement & Concrete Association of Australia, Public Domain

Awards, State Winner Victoria

Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia, Victorian

Excellence Awards, Commendation.

Environments

Constructed of different coloured insitu concrete, bluestone and granite, steel forms the edge boundaries of the different levels and planes. This bold use of steel presents a confident detail to the edges and highlights the concrete banding throughout the project. The various materials were chosen to break up the expanse of the park and provide visual interest. The granite inserts required specific reinforcement to limit cracking and the steel edging and coping used to cap the edges of the insitu concrete required precise installation to mitigate the possibility of the two different compounds separating. Honed quartz-seeded insitu concrete was used as a feature and to highlight different textural nodes. Honed bluestone was used on walls with granite and concrete steps. Drainage of the entire site is hidden in slot drains of around 10mm in width along the base of each concrete plane. Drainage was an important consideration of the project. We needed to remove water from the skating surface quickly to keep the park dry and provide greater “skatability” and also provide water to irrigate the green areas.

Additionally, lighting was kept to a minimum luminosity at night as it was an important design consideration to limit night-time use of the facility. The concealed L.E.D.’s used under each plane add an interesting aesthetic, almost making it appear that each concrete plane is floating, without providing flood lighting to encourage anti-social activity after dark.

Info used from the Convic Website can be found at: http://www.convic.com/

07. Post 2000 Skate Park – Capalaba Skatepark

Overview

The Capalaba skatepark or Redlands skatepark, as it can otherwise be known as is a plaza style skatepark that mimics skateable city landscapes. The skatepark also caters for other skating styles and other users, such as BMX and scooter riders with a multitude of quarters, blocks and a large bowl.

Society

Plan C guided a highly collaborative planning and engagement process where young people, skaters, BMX riders and community members were involved in concept development and detailed design of the Plaza. The conceptual development and detailed design process was carried out by Convic Design in Melbourne. The entire parklands cater for a wide variety of sporting activities and opportunities.

Culture

The skatepark has quite a substantial following, and on any given day you will see the skatepark being activated by a multitude of users. The skatepark integrates breakout spaces and other types of green spaces that users of the park can inhabit when not engaging with the skateable facilities.

Planning

Plan C helped the Redland Shire Council develop a grant application for the project, which was successful and subsequently became the first time a youth facility of this nature had ever been awarded a major grant. The skatepark is situated close to other sporting fields that cater for mainstream sporting leagues. A major shopping centre is also located opposite the skatepark and offers a wide range of hospitality and retail venues.

Environment

The Redlands skatepark is primarily constructed of concrete runs throughout the park that make use of banks, blocks, quarters and grind rails strewn around the park. There are multiple landscaped areas throughout the skatepark that act as buffers and termination points of large concreted areas and parts of the skatepark that cannot be utilised by skaters or BMX and scooter riders.

Info used from Plan C website can be found at: http://www.planc.com.au/

06. Pre 2000 Skate Park – Alexandra Gardens Riverside Skatepark

Overview

The Riverside Skatepark is an enclosed rectangular skatepark placed in the centre of a large public park. There are many elements of the skatepark that can be utilised by skateboarders, BMX and scooter riders, which makes the skatepark very accessible to a wide variety of users.

Society

The skatepark may be close to the main CBD of Melbourne city, but it does feel quite segregated in its own way. There are disclaimers and warning signs posted intermittently throughout the park and there are multiple fences in different sections of the park.

Culture

The skatepark has quite an extensive following of youths throughout the day at different times of the week. On one occasion many youths skipped school for some hours just to hang out at the skatepark with their friends. The skatepark is easily accessible from the city centre, also the city itself caters for skateboarding with a policy in place where skates can skate in the city centre between the hours of 7pm and 7am. Many skateboarders take advantage of this when the same predictable lines within the skatepark become dull and pedestrian.

Planning

The skatepark is located in the centre of Alexandra Gardens, which hugs the Yarra River and is adjacent to the Flinders Street Station. The parklands are also home to the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Shrine of Remembrance and the Myer Music Bowl. The hours of operation of the Alexandra gardens skate park are prescribed to 10am to 6pm, 7days a week. Night-time skating is offered on Wednesdays and Fridays from 6pm to 10:30pm. The kiosk at the skatepark also accommodates a café and skate shop on site, a public toilet block is situated towards the rear of the skatepark.

Environment

The Riverside skatepark is constructed primarily of concrete and has many fun boxes, quarters, rails and skate blocks. The skatepark is still fairly new and the skatepark itself is still in very good condition. There are minimal amounts of graffiti inside the park, the only graffiti on the park was actually commissioned for the park. The skatepark also has floodlights which allows users to inhabit the skatepark at night. There has been no consideration given to shade structures or any forms of break out spaces inside the park.

05. Pre 2000 Skate Park – Paddington Skatepark

Overview

The Paddington skate park has been the premier inner city skate park for almost a decade, being one of the first street style parks built. Over the years, it has had many additional extras added and been altered by those who skate it, as well as major changes, including the removal of the metal mini ramp and small metal spine that were key features of the park. In the current state, with the new obstacles, it includes a lumpy 6ft concrete half pipe, a fairly smooth 4ft bowl, various original quarters, banks, hips, ledges and the new block and rail combination.

Society

Paddington skatepark is a fairly prominent skatepark within the skateboarding community, however the park was designed out of view from the surrounding public parks to keep the skateboarders separate from the public park users. The skatepark is also coupled with the local swimming pool, play ground with ‘jungle gym’ equipment and dog park to create a multi-purpose activity grounds. In doing this there are a wide range of activities taking place in the one area, allowing families and teenagers to activate the area in a co-habitual relationship.

Culture

There is a very strong skate culture that surrounds the Paddington skatepark with large groups of friends congregating at the skatepark at multiple times of the day. When most of the skateboarders aren’t skating they are sitting and relaxing in the many break out spaces around the park. On the wall where the half pipe is a large mural has been painted as a memorial to a once promising Australian skateboarder, Shane Cross.

Planning

The skatepark is located below the main road that fronts the Suncorp Stadium and is also adjacent to the Hale Street off ramp. The skate park is within the same park as the play equipment, barbeques and off leash dog area, but it is however pushed to the most unfavourable section of the park, behind the public swimming pool. This is most likely due to the noise and risk of injury the skatepark poses on the rest of the park.

Environment

The Paddington skatepark is primarily a concrete skatepark with a variety of skateboarding styles catered for. A large half pip is located to one side of the skatepark with a street style section with fun boxes and rails between a four-sided bowl opposite. There is graffiti on many faces of the skate park and on the fall that houses the half pipe is where the Shane Cross memorial is located. The skatepark also has many trees across the site and also seating areas and grassed spaces for users of the park to utilise when not skateboarding.

04. Pre 2000 Skate Park – Fairfield Skatepark

Overview

The Fairfield Skatepark is a park that was built to cater for skateboarders, inline skaters, BMX and scooter riders. The skatepark has a half pipe and spine in the centre of the two quarters. An oblong shaped bowl is located on the other side of the skatepark. The centre of the skatepark could be called a street course, however it’s design makes it predominantly a skatepark for BMX riders. Lines and blocks in the skatepark are underutilised by skaters and BMX and scooter riders dominate the skatepark.

Society

The skatepark is placed in-between to large multi-purpose playing areas. On one side is a sporting ground that caters for local sporting leagues in the community. The other as a large undefined park area, which has a ‘jungle gym’ style play equipment. Even the fact that the skatepark is situated in-between these types of fields, the skatepark has an expanse of uninhabited land between them to in a way push the skateboarders closer to the main road and away from youth orientated sporting facilities.

Culture

There is a fairly substantial following behind the Fairfield skatepark, mainly smaller groups of friends associating with other groups while using the park. There is almost a ‘turf control’ situation, where the BMX riders are constantly populating a large portion of the park, the bowl is practically unused apart from the occasional skater and the scooter riders inhabit the half pipe and spine. This separation gives a very non-unified congregation of users, not really interacting with anyone outside their circle of friends.

Planning

The skatepark is situated on the main road and it is highly visible from the street, the constant traffic in the area leads to pollution from the car exhaust resulting in poor air quality around the skatepark. The skate park is adjacent to a large residential area with no retail shops or hospitality venues close by. A public bus stop is located directly in front of the skatepark and there is even a parking bay in front of the bust stop allowing the users to take public transport of use their own means of transport to get to the park. The skatepark has no night-time lighting facilities incorporated into the area, when there is limited to no light on the skatepark the area becomes quite intimidating and the users cannot participate in their chosen sport at night.

Environment

The Fairfield skatepark is practically a concrete rectangle encompassing the half pipe and street section with the bowl section tacked onto one end. The skatepark has no man made shade structures on the site, however there are many trees around the skatepark that provide shaded break-out space for the users to escape the ‘hot box’ that the skatepark becomes on a summer day. The skatepark has a minimal amount of graffiti in terms of it’s overall size and amount of concrete surfaces.

03. Pre 2000 Skate Park – Toombul Skatepark

Overview

The Toombul skatepark is a very disjointed park with an obscure ‘S’ shaped fun box in the centre of a bitumen space. The skatepark has two steel quarter pipes adjacent to each other, one a high section and the other with an angled bank in the centre. There are large wooden beams oddly positioned in the park that are practically impossible to make any real use of.

Society

The skatepark is adjacent a grassed parkland with playground equipment on the opposite side to the skatepark. There is never a great del of skateboarders using the skatepark at one time, on the multiple visits to the park there would have been a maximum of four users at the park at once.

Culture

There doesn’t seem to be an existent following behind the park and no real regular users. There seems to be no cultural significance of the skatepark, nor any skate shops near by.

Planning

The skatepark is located behind the Toombul train station and backs onto a main road, the constant traffic in the area leads to pollution from the car exhaust resulting in poor air quality around the skatepark. The skate park is also adjacent to light industrial and commercial establishments. The Toombul shopping centre is located across the main road and offers a multitude of food and beverage venues and retail options.

Environment

The skatepark is comprised of concrete, bitumen, steel and timber structures. There are many cases where the concrete sections of the skatepark are deteriorating or have broken away with no signs of repair. Many faces of the skatepark are covered in graffiti and rubbish is often strewn across the site. There are however many trees around the site which offer shaded break out areas at different times of the day.

02. Pre 2000 Skate Park – Nundah Skatepark

Overview

The Nundah skatepark was originally a simple 4ft half pipe that had a bowl section at one end and the two quarters on the opposite end tapered down to a flat concrete section. Where the quarters terminated at ground level a low rail was placed at the end of the half pipe. The skatepark has recently had a redesign and new skating elements have been added. Blocks on either side of the tapered quarters have been added, one rail has been removed and an ‘L’ shaped quarter and vert section has been added to the flat section to the rear of the half pipe.

Society

The Nundah skatepark is situated in a small residential community and the main following behind the park is a small group of young children who visit the park with their parents. For the skatepark to be located in such a built up residential area the local community would have to be fairly accepting of skateboarding and the associated risks involved when skateparks and occupied.

Culture

Young children mainly occupy the skatepark and is fairly family orientated. During the week the skatepark is almost derelict with most of the users at school, however on the weekends the park isn’t used as much as other skateparks around the area. The additions to the park were obviously constructed due to community input and users requests, even though on the occasions that the skatepark was visited there were next to no users on site.

Planning

The skatepark is about a block away from a main road and multiple public transport stops. Usually skateparks aren’t situated in built up residential areas but because the park itself is quite large, there is still quite a lot of space between the park and nearby homes. The Nundah skatepark has many facilities to be utilised by both skatepark users and park users. Barbeques, picnic areas, ‘jungle gym’ style play equipment and toilet facilities are located at the park.

Environment

The skatepark is simply placed roughly in the centre of the existing park. Numerous large trees shelter the skatepark, which provides shade over sections of the skatepark. The skatepark itself is fairly well maintained and graffiti only covers about 50% of the skatepark.

01. Pre 2000 Skate Park – Woolloongabba Skatepark

Overview

The Woolloongabba skatepark is practically a bowl, that can’t really be considered a bowl. It only has three quarter pipes just over two feet high. The bowl was designed and constructed by the Brisbane City Council recreational services sector and hasn’t been maintained since it’s inception.

Society

The public park has many facilities, which include multiple large playing fields, picnic and barbeque areas. The fields also cater for many community-sporting leagues. The skate park is noted to have associated risks involved when using the park and they have been outlined on a sign erected by the Brisbane City Council. The Council has also tried to enforce a 12hr user timeframe.

Culture

The skate park in this instance is seen to be an unimportant or somewhat irrelevant component of the entire park. The park has been segregated from the other sporting ground, which is considered more important, mainly because of the money that can be made from sporting clubs and functions. The skatepark itself doesn’t generate any revenue and it wouldn’t doesn’t have an existing following that use the park regularly.

Planning

The skatepark is located very close to a main road, the constant traffic in the area leads to pollution from the car exhaust resulting in poor air quality around the skatepark. The skate park is also adjacent to light industrial and commercial establishments. There are no public transport stops close to the skatepark, any on street parking is located in the residential areas around the larger extent of the park. Parking facilities for the skatepark are lacking, even bordering on non-existent. The skatepark has no night-time lighting facilities incorporated into the area, so as soon as the sun sets, it makes it almost impossible to skate at all.

Environment

The skatepark is made up solely of concrete and has no element of technical design that diverges from your atypical half pipe. The skatepark is slowly deteriorating and parts of the bowl are cracked and have broken away. The skatepark has an extensive amount of graffiti on it’s surface and this can change the general perception of the park to outside users or visitors. The skatepark is in full sun during all hours of the day, because of this there has been a shade structure constructed adjacent to the skatepark. There have also been no considerations given to vegetation or landscape forms around the skatepark or the outlying areas.