TARAS Skatepark

TARAS Skatepark
© Błażej Pindor

TARAS SKATEPARK

Marcin Kwietowicz + Michal Sikorski

AREA
1600 m²

ARCHITECTS
Marcin Kwietowicz, Michal Sikorski

YEAR
2019

MANUFACTURERS
Hay

LEAD ARCHITECT
Michał Sikorski

GENERAL CONTRACTOR
Palmett

ARCHITECT
Agnieszka Kołacinska

LOCATION
Varsovia, Poland

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
Daniel Przybyłek

CATEGORY
Installations & Structures, Park, Skatepark

Text description provided by architect.

Since the collapse of communism thirty years ago, Warsaw’s hyper-centre has become a testing ground for all sorts of rapidly expanding corporate architectures.

TARAS Skatepark
© Błażej Pindor
TARAS Skatepark
© Błażej Pindor

At the same time, public space seems to have been frozen and barely evolved in its monumental scale and socialist form.

It is only recently that a series of new public investments intends to bring new programs to the city centre, igniting the potential to activate and inhabit it.

TARAS Skatepark
© Błażej Pindor
TARAS Skatepark
© Marcin Czechowicz

In reaction to this context, we thought about building an interface between the stone-clad public spaces and the inaccessible glass skyline. We have designed a horizontal skyscraper, made of wood and composed of public amenities. The project takes advantage of the available space and enters a formal dialogue with the surrounding skyline.

The "TARAS" urban deck is a public space realized as part of the Warsaw participatory budgeting program. The project brings new func=ons to life in a corner of a park, which was, until lately, neglected and misused. It revitalizes a pre-existing pavilion and defines a temporary limit to the construction site of the new museum of modern art.

TARAS Skatepark
© Błażej Pindor
TARAS Skatepark
© Błażej Pindor

The greyish wooden decking in the shape of an elongated rectangle - with its geometry, color, and scale - corresponds with the surrounding office buildings, complementing the corporate urban context with public functions.

The platform, located in proximity to the soviet-style Palace of Culture and Science, resembles a large wooden deck (80x20m) and serves as a minimalistic, organized public space.

TARAS Skatepark
© Błażej Pindor
TARAS Skatepark
© Błażej Pindor

It hangs above the noise of the constantly moving, changing city like a calm wooden raft.


TARAS Skatepark
Site Plan
TARAS Skatepark
Plan


TARAS Skatepark
Elevation
TARAS Skatepark
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TARAS Skatepark
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TARAS Skatepark
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TARAS Skatepark
Axonometric