A “Skateable Artwork” That Glows in the Dark

Architizer News

A “Skateable Artwork” That Glows in the Dark

August 2, 2012

We’ve seen the skate park used in a great many ways, from functioning as a “canvas” for artworks , a full-scale pinball machine, and even a working “office” to masquerading as a house and actually invading one. That might not be enough to qualify the skate park as a legitimate typology, but we’re not fretting about it. The latest in the novel ramps-and-bowls trend is OTRO, the world’s first glow-in-the-dark skate park.

Designed by Korean artist Koo Jeong A, with technical assistance from L’Escaut Architecture, the “skateable sculpture”, installed at a sculpture park on Vassivière Island (France), features all sorts of splined surfaces, cradles, bowls, and tunnels. It’s all carefully cast in concrete and handled with a Niemeyer-like sensibility. After that set and cured, the team applied a coating of green phosphorescent paint overtop to give the park its nocturnal fluorescence. By day, the all-white park appears an abstract aberration, set against the deep greens and browns of nearby groves of trees; at night, the concrete-scape hums with an alien pallor the hue of enemy laser-fire in sci-fi films, glowing with the soft luminescence of a deep-ocean creature. According to its makers, the project is meant as “an art work to live, to experiment, not only from a sporting point of view but also from a sensorial, sensitive and artistic point of view.”