British skatepark a perfect fit for Asia
Multistorey facility in Folkestone suits dense urban areas like Hong Kong
Skateboarding is booming in Asia. When skateboarders first started clattering around Hong Kong plazas in the 1980s, they were moved on by security, and notices went up to deter them. The Leisure and Cultural Services Department was initially sceptical about skateparks, but eventually approved one in Lai Chi Kok Park that opened in 2000. Now Hong Kong has almost 20.
Skateboarding was included in the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, and when it debuted as an Olympic sport at the Tokyo Summer Games in 2021, Japan took five of 12 medals, with two going to the US, where skateboarding had its mid-20thcentury street roots in freespirited California.
The number of skateboarders, now in the millions, continues to grow, so demand for skateparks will almost certainly increase. That presents a challenge in a dense city like Hong Kong, where space is at a premium.
Architect Guy Hollaway has a solution. He says “the concept of the multistorey skatepark enables you to place the building in the heart of a city, where it is accessible by public transport and can be enjoyed by many more young people”.
The first such facility he designed opened in April, not in Asia but the small English seaside town of Folkestone. The dramatically jutting, angular building called F51 offers three stacked levels of skatepark.
Hollaway, the founder of the UK-based architectural practice Hollaway Studio, is adamant to share the credit with the tycoon who instigated the scheme, Sir Roger de Haan, founder of the Saga Group, which provides products for the over-50s. “He’s like a wannabe architect and he gets involved,” Hollaway says.
Both men had concluded that a proposed multistorey car park for the site looked “boring”, and de Haan asked for a skatepark to be integrated. The design evolved until, as Hollaway says, “this idea of a multistorey skatepark was born”.
F51 sits besides Folkestone’s Creative Quarter, where quaint, colourful old buildings line steep streets. The new 3,250 square metre building could not be more different. Sheathed in crushed metal penetrated by small triangular windows, the building has an angular shape that tapers outwards, the sharp rounded corner facing the sea not unlike a ship’s prow cutting a path towards it.
Curved concrete bulges over the entrance and undulations across the ground floor’s fluid ceiling indicate the undersides of “bowls” in the skatepark on the floor above. Behind the reception desk and cafe counter, the wall is lined with skateboards printed with art from local brands and creatives.
But F51 is not all skateboarding. Boxing facilities lie beyond the reception area, and from the first floor, 600 square metres of climbing wall rises three storeys towards skylights in the roof.
BMX bikers are welcome on the skatepark and, Hollaway notes, they affected the design: “Bikes can cover greater distance and travel through the air further and higher, so it’s pretty critical that floor-to-ceiling heights are right.”
The first-floor skatepark, designed by specialists Maverick Skateparks, is cast in concrete and includes a monster bowl 2.9 metres deep with a rim lined with mosaic. This is a nod to the swimming pools of LA’s Dogtown area, which local skaters famously plunged into in 1976/77.
The skateparks on the second and third floors are larger because the building gets wider, but they are gentler. Both are crafted by specialists Cambian Action, which applied artisan skills to the plywood surfacing. The material is much more sustainable than concrete, and as Hollaway says, wood “gives you friction, it’s easier”. The total skateboarding area is 1,873 square metres.
The split across three levels affords freedom in programming so that a floor may be timeallocated to beginners, professionals or competitions. Femaleonly usage slots are important, because girls drive much of the sport’s growth worldwide. At the games in Tokyo, two 13-year-old girls took gold and silver medals, suggesting longer careers ahead of them and a further skewing away from the male dominance the sport once had. Hong Kong requires Olympic competitors to be 18 years or older.
F51’s skatepark levels are unheated but sealed to the outside because, as Holloway says, “after investigating the impact of weather, the decision was made to shroud the building in a waterproof facade. The slightest bit of moisture on the concrete bowls can render the surface unskatable.”
Hong Kong’s skateparks are open air (with a rare exception of Sk85ive2 in Kwun Tong), but weatherproofing would be a game-changer, especially during hot, wet summers. In Folkestone, air is constantly refreshed to remove the heat and carbon dioxide generated from the sport inside, and the controlled internal climate also guarantees competition and events.
“If you’ve got people flying in from America to skate, they can’t be told it’s not open,” Hollaway says.
Now that a multistorey skatepark has been realised, he adds, there is a future for similar facilities beyond Folkestone.
“In cities such as Hong Kong where land is scarce and of high value, this design provides an opportunity to make the sports more accessible and inclusive,” Hollaway says.