Old City, New Tricks: Designing and Nurturing Skate Inclusive Cities.

JAMIE HIBBS - 20006858

OLD CITY, NEW TRICKS

CONTENTS 05

INTRODUCTION

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THE STRUCTURE

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THE METHODOLOGY

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CRITICAL BIBIOLOGRAPHY

A PIPE

Introduction: Urban environments, now more than ever, serve as central hubs for social activity, with urban plazas cropping up in every city in the UK. However, currently in many cities across the UK our urban environments are hostile places for subcultures wanting to exercise their habits freely. Social exclusion is not a new issue, but one which has subjugated our urban spaces for decades - Through my research I want to explore how we could use skateboarding culture to inform design, and nurture inclusive urban spaces, making for safer and healthier cities (Book, 2020). Furthermore, I will outline how skateboarding could help to regenerate left over urban space, thus creating new social hubs for minority cultures and overall generating more culturally diverse cities. Historically, in the UK skateboarding and the municipality are in constant dispute, with local authorities spending tens of thousands on Hostile Architecture with the specific goal of removing skaters from urban spaces and directing them towards the edge of cities or towns, where skateparks are located (Davis, 2018).

DREAM

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Hostile City: Hostile architecture is the design, modification, or removal of urban features with the aim of excluding a specific group or subculture.

Hostile architecture can range from whole gated communities, to benches which prevent rough sleeping. Some methods are subtle, to the point at which most don’t notice them, and some, such as the Berlin wall, seek to segregate large groups of people. What is not clear is the phycological impact hostile architecture has on the groups it excludes, Alex Andreou writes that “making our urban environments hostile breeds hardness and isolation” – so minority cultures feel even more removed from participating in the acting out of the urban affect as a result of hostile architecture, in turn making our urban environments less diverse (Jacobs in Litch, 2017).

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Unfortunately, arguments against hostile architecture could prove futile, as the positive effects currently out way negative ones – Namely the consequentialist argument that by excluding a small minority group from an urban space you benefit the wider majority; for instance, removing homeless from a public park using hostile benches will make the park safer and more accessible for young families.

For skateboarding, hostile architecture comes in the form of skate-stoppers (see image above), metal attachments cast or added to obstacles to stop tricks such as the ‘boardslide’ or ‘smith grind’ (Litch, 2017).

The main goal of skate-stoppers is to exclude skateboarders from urban space, but in many cases, like with the Cenotaph in Bristol where the council spent £20,000 installing skate-stoppers, it doesn’t work, and skaters just develop new tricks to get around the metal attachments. The installation in Bristol was viewed by the general public and local skaters as a waste of money, the space serves mainly as a through route from Broadmead to the Waterfront and from my own experience, passers-by have been largely supportive of the skaters using that space. Furthermore, with most of the skateparks in the area falling into disrepair, it was hard for many to understand why this taxpayers’ money wasn’t spent fixing or building new parks (Davis, 2018).

To understand why authorities, spend tens of thousands of pounds on preventative measures, we must first explore the ecology between skateboarding and the urban fabric.

It is important to note subversive nature of skateboarding - Skateboarding as a subversive activity, can be viewed during the interaction between skater and urban space, where the elements of the urban scape become to a degree recombined. The interaction creates a double use for architecture, thus subverting the intended use and manipulating the space for play in the form of ledge or rail tricks (Glenney, 2018). Skateboarding, due to its subversive interplay with architecture, is demonised by the public and authorities and therefore the relationship is discouraged through the use of hostile architecture.

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Photo By: Tom Sparey

SKATEPARK As skateboarding became more popular during the 1970s purpose-built spaces to facilitate skateboarding were designed. The first skateparks, such as Pipeline skatepark, California (1977), replicated the backyard bowls found throughout the urban environment of California (Borden, 2001).

Skatepark design and urban design have a hybrid relationship, the constant development of skatepark design moves with the development of urban design which indicates the strong relationship between skateboarding and urban space (Glenney, 2019).

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The skatepark was a reactionary development which sought to replicate features of the urban environment within a contained space. Some parks are entirely functional with ledges and rails being designed specifically for skateboarding – this tends to be outdoor, council funded parks which are open freely to the public. In comparison, modern indoor commercial parks, such as Folkestone’s F51 park, tend to experiment more with architectural design, materials, and ornamentation; for example, F51 boasts the worlds first suspended skate bowl which sits above the café meaning the skaters can be heard from the floor below (Borden, 2022).

Modern skateplazas, from 2011 onwards, replicate the plazas found in front of commercial space, although, for some skaters this is just another attempt by the municipality at segregating and excluding skaters from city centres (Glenney, 2019).

Often skateparks are situated on the fringe of a city and for many skaters this feels as if they are a form of containment, that the city is excluding them from the urban environment. Further to this point, skateparks will often have rules, which in their nature are in complete opposition with the creative freedom found at the heart of skateboarding culture (Owens in Howell, 2008). Skateparks are looked upon with uncertainty by the skateboarding community,

with some even referring to them as ‘skate prisons’ (Patterson, 2013). As if to fight this governed containment, Skateboarders will often take it upon themselves to occupy disused space, Lefebvre describes these spaces as ‘zero degrees space’, an area which serves no purpose to the wider community (Borden, 2001). These spaces are predominantly hostile environments, unsafe for the public, although, when skateboarders occupy these spaces, they tend have a positive impact creating a safer environment and improving the architecture of the space; for example, in Easton, Bristol, skateboarders have occupied the space underneath the M32 bridge and built a DIY skatepark, which has no become one of Bristol’s most popular skateboarding hotspots.

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Photo By: Blabac

THE

Introduction:

500 words

Research aims and questions Definitions Literature Review Research Methodology

Chapter One: Context

1250 words

Hisotry of Skateboarding: •

Parks

•

Street Skating

Origins of Hostile Architecture Skatebaording and the city

Chapter Two: Body

2750 words

Skatepark Typologies Top Down - Bottom Up: Vans, London & M32, Bristol Comparison Findings from shadowing skatepark designers Video-Journal and loose conversations with local skaters

Conclusions

500 words

Acknowledgements Bibliography

5000 words

STRUCTURE

“BOARD” OF

Methodology: In order to carry out my research I will be using a number of methods; Firstly, I will be shadowing local skatepark designers, such as Canvas Skateparks and Maverick skateparks to investigate their process of skatepark design. In addition, I will meet with local organisations, such as the Clevedon Skatepark Project, which are set up to improve skate facilities through crowd funding.

During these meetings I will be asking about the process of proposing or renovating a new skatepark, including funding, planning permission, and the relationship with local authority and local residents in terms of support for new parks – specifically, the renovation of Clevedon skatepark which is a metal skatepark that has become unsafe for use. I grew up skating this park and the council have left it to deteriorate, this has left local skaters with the job of crowdfunding to get a new park built. Furthermore, I will be attending the annual ‘Dean Lane Hardcore Funday’ which is an event at Dean Lane skatepark, Bristol, where the community comes together in a celebration of skateboarding, art, music and food – during this event I will be having loose conversations with local skaters to get an understanding of how they would like to see urban space improved and also what their stance is on skateparks, whether they are seen as containment devices or positive recreational spaces.

Being a skateboarder myself I will be using videography to give a first-hand account of my own experience with skateparks and skating in urban space. Through a video journal I will record and map my movements to examine how I respond to the design of the space, whether I appropriate the space, if my movements correspond with the process of design and how others around me use the same space. The process of video logging should help me understand whether the design of a space plays into the creative process of skating, or if a skater subconsciously appropriates a space and moulds its use to fit with their own creative efforts - thus I will be able to conclude whether we should be designing urban spaces for specific activity, or if by designing a specific space, you hinder the creativity found within the activity.

EXCLUSION

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To inform my research I have selected a number of sources which are relevant to urban design, hostile architecture, and skateboarding within architecture.

The primary source is from Professor Iain Borden, Vice-Dean of Education and Professor of Architecture & Urban Culture at UCL. Borden is the leading author on skate-architecture, his publication – “Skateboarding, Space, and the City: Architecture and the body” explains the history of skateboarding, skateparks and the relationship between skateboarding and urban space.

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Borden draws a lot of his theories on the connection between skateboarding and the production space from Marxist philosopher Henri Lefebvre, in particular the body centric space produced when a skateboarder performs arial tricks. In addition, Borden writes extensively about the appropriation and reinterpretation of space skateboarders exhibit, including the use of what Lefebvre calls ‘Zero Degree architecture’, “left-over space of modernist planning” (Borden, 2001 P.188).

To gain a better understanding of the architecture and typology of skateparks, I selected Brian Glenney’s publication for the Journal of Urban Design - “Skateparks as hybrid elements of the city”. This published article outlines the hybrid relationship between skateparks and urban design, detailing the replication of city elements within skateparks and the reaction of urban planning following the rise of street skateboarding (skateboarding in the city, not in designated spaces).

Glenney proposes an idea that skateparks are containment devices, to which some extent I disagree – when I started skateboarding the only space available to me was the local skatepark and it provided the best ground conditions and obstacles in my local area; therefore, the skatepark played a central role in the local skate scene and facilitated the growth of a community, one where I met my closest friends.

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Photo By: Atiba Jefferson

THE

Although I disagree that skateparks are containment devices and actually feel they are necessary to the growth of skateboarding, I also resonate with Licht’s arguments of right to public space, and I believe that hostile architecture seeking to exclude skaters from appropriating urban space is wrong. In “Hostile urban architecture: A critical discussion of the seemingly offensive art of keeping people away.” Licht argues the positive and negative phycological impacts of hostile architecture, including skate-stoppers. Using his arguments, I was able to develop an understanding of why authorities chose to implement preventative measures and the negative phycological impacts these have on the groups they intend to exclude.

Conclusion: To conclude, skateboarding is vital to urban planning, for if we want to create inclusive urban spaces, we should not exclude groups, but instead implement them within design via consultation and communication. I believe using the global skateboarding culture within urban design can help to create more diverse and safer urban spaces, thus improving quality of life and public health.

ENDER

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REFERENCES

Borden, I. 2001. “Skateboarding, Space and the City; Architecture and the body.” Berg, Oxford.

Borden, I. 2020. “Skateboarding: Design and Development Guidance for Skateboarding – Creating quality spaces and places for skateboarding.” Skateboard GB [online]. [Accessed 22 April 2022].

Borden, I. 2022. “Urban Playgrounds: Designing Skateboarding Spaces.” (No place) [online].

[Accessed 21 April 2022].

Borden, I. 2022. “F51 – A New Type of Skatepark.” (No place) [online]. [Accessed 19 April 2022].

Book, K. and Edén, G.S. 2020. “Malmo – the skateboard city: a multi-level approach for developiong and marketing a city through user-driven partnerships.” International Journal of Sports and Marketing [online]. [Accessed 20 April 2022].

Davis, K. 2018. “The skaters were right: Bristol City Council spent £21,000 on ‘skate stops’ at Cenotaph.” The Guardian Post [Online]. Available: www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/skaters-wereright-bristol-city-1079473. [Accessed 22 April 2022] Glenney, B. and O’Connor, P. 2019. “Skateparks as hybrid elements of the City”, Journal of Urban Design [online]. [Accessed 18 April 2022].

Glenney, B. and Mull, S. 2018. “Skateboarding and the Ecology of Urban Space”, Journal of Urban Design [online]. [Accessed 20 April 2022].

Howell, O. 2008. “Skatepark as Neoliberal Playground: Urban Governance, Recreation Space, and the Cultivation of Personal Responsibility.” Space and Culture 11 [online]. [Accessed 19 April 2022].

Licht, K.d.F. 2017. “Hostile urban architecture: A critical discussion of the seemingly offensive art of keeping people away.” Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics [online]. [Accessed 20 April 2022].

Patterson, H. 2013. “Guy Mariano interview.” YouTube Video [online]. Available: https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=jOBf5v2oHzE [Accessed 18 April 2022]

Images: Jefferson, A. [no date]. “jim greco backside tailslides one of university of california infamous chocolate brown handrails.” [no place], [online]. Available: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/ pin/408842472394594736/ [Accessed 19 April 2022].

Coulthard, J. 2019. “Catching up with Louie Lopez.” Freeskatemag [online]. Available: https:// www.freeskatemag.com/2019/01/24/catching-up-with-louie-lopez/ [Accessed 18 April 2022].

Blabac, M. 2016. “Evan Smith Interview.” Thrasher Magazine [online]. Available: https://www. thrashermagazine.com/articles/evan-smith-interview-011116/ 17

SKATEBAORDING IS NOT A CRIME

Photo By: Jon Coulthard

A synopsis by Jamie Hibbs for UWE Bristol.