Economy
How to Build a Better Skatepark
A Finnish skateboarder and landscape architect rethinks these historically community-aggravating youth spaces.
At six years old, Janne Saario became a skateboarder. His country, Finland, hit an economic boom in the mid-1980s and cool cultural imports from the United States were flooding the market. Saario and his friends were hooked on skateboarding videos, and wanted to adapt the sport to suit their Northern-Helsinki suburb, Torpparinmäki.
“We would scour the city to find locations that had a certain atmosphere,” Saario says. “Finland didn’t have skateparks at the time, so we invented our own.” Areas with Rapakivi granite, for example, were great because the boards’ wheels made nice sounds when they rolled over the natural rock. A curb with an elaborate façade behind it could make for an interesting place to photograph a trick.