Based on lahznimmo architects’ previous experience during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games with the delivery of a variety of temporary structures, including the NBC Today Show Broadcast Pavilion, the Sydney Olympic Park Authority (SOPA) approached lahznimmo architects to assist in delivering the new Monster Skate Park at Sydney Olympic Park.
The building was conceived on one level as an urban response to the scale of the nearby Olympic Boulevard and adjacent breakout space and therefore as one continuous edge to the precinct, presenting a legible and identifiable face to the street. At another scale the building serves as a container which is used for the operation and surveillance of the Skate Park, the selling and hiring of skate related equipment and as a place for the users of the Park to relax and ‘chillout’.
The building is expressed quite simply as the one extruded steel clad tube punctuated by an array of coloured polycarbonate apertures. It is open at one end to provide a secure entry/ exit point for the park and quite transparent along its long internal edge, allowing a strong relationship with the activity within the park. The internal fit out was carried out by others.