Hollaway Studio has recently completed the world’s first multi-story skatepark. The building’s design is very practical and its layered interior squeezes three skateparks, a climbing wall, and a boxing ring into a relatively compact inner-city site.
The building is called F51 and is in Folkestone, England. It was commissioned by philanthropist Sir Roger De Haan and the original plan was that it would be a multi-story carpark. It then changed to a mixture of carpark and skatepark before the team finally settled on a skatepark set on multiple floors. The kids will only have to pay a nominal £1 (US$1.30) a month membership to use it.
Visitors enter a first-floor café space, which has the shape of the underside of a concrete skating bowl protruding out of the ceiling.
The second floor has two classic concrete skate bowls situated side by side, while the third floor is made up of plywood and contains obstacles like stairs, railings, and benches for skaters to do tricks on. Finally, the fourth floor is also constructed from ply and configured with yet more obstacles, including quarter pipes, that are arranged on slopes so that the skater doesn’t have to take their feet off the board to push.
“It’s an incredible building,” said architect Guy Hollaway. “It’s extremely complicated in terms of its construction because it’s a world first. It’s the world’s first multi-story skatepark. We’re going to have skaters skating above your head and you’ll be able to hear the wheels of the skateboard going into the bowl right above you. How often does somebody come along in your career as an architect and say ‘Build me the world’s first multi-story skatepark’? It doesn’t happen so much. So I understand the opportunity and the responsibility that comes with that and the opportunity to really make positive long-term change.”