Completed in just 13 months, this incredible architectural skate park was designed by Madrid-based SelgasCano Architects who were inspired by the forms and construction of Chinese dragons, and specified inexpensive building materials, including lightweight polycarbonate.
The concept was first introduced in 2006 by Carlos Javier Rodríguez Jiménez, a physical education teacher who studied the humanization of urban spaces, and four collaborators. Today, the concept become a creative and magnificent complex, Factoria Joven (youth factory), in Merida, Spain. Its undulating curves and brightly-colored structures invites energetic teens for biking, skating or climbing on. The building houses a computer lab and meeting rooms, spaces used for street theater, as well as a dance studio, video and electronic music, and even graffiti where youth can access the Internet through public computers.
Photos by Ivan Baan.