Event
Date
Location
Description
011
Event 011
Date
Location
Hawkins\Brown HQ
30 Clerkenwell Road
London EC1M 5PG
Description
Event 011 explores the complex relationship between skateboarders and urban public space. In collaboration with Hawkins\Brown, it will examine how architecture in cities is appropriated, adapted and (occasionally) contested by skaters in pursuit of their sport.
Fundamentally a spatial activity, skateboarding is rooted in movement, flow and improvisation. What begins as public infrastructure, intended for sitting, walking or gathering, becomes terrain to be interpreted, challenged and reimagined. Benches, ledges, handrails and pavements are temporarily transformed, which generates a push-pull dynamic between skateboarders and local councils.
Skateboarders read architecture differently from other city users. The event aims to provoke discussion about whether skateboarding can coexist with urban design in a mutually beneficial way. The debate will uncover what it means to claim space in a city – and ask, who gets to decide how that space is used? As skateboarding gains recognition through Olympic sport status and increased mainstream visibility, the conversation about its place in the public realm has never been more relevant.
Panel 01
Seth Curtis • Skateboarder
Yẹmí Aládérun • Architect | Head of Development
Dr Iain Borden • Historian | UCL
Wig Worland • Photographer | Archivist
Panel 02
Agnieszka Wood • Everyone on Boards
Stuart Maclure • Development Manager | Betong Park
Jeremy Donaldson • Architect | Skateboarder
Joe Lewis • Camden Council
Panel 011
Documenting 011
Event 011 took place at the London HQ of award-winning architects, Hawkins\Brown. For anyone unfamiliar, their Clerkenwell premises has a brilliant, open-plan ground floor area which has been purposefully designed for hosting events and presentations. It was the ideal setting for another sold-out event, with standing room only for some attendees who didn’t manage to grab a seat. There was pizza, drinks and plenty of people eager to hear the experts debating the intersection of skateboarding and architecture. The panel discussions (x 2) were lively, insightful, alternative and fun – exactly what we had in mind.
