Archigestures: Activating Urban Space

Street skateboarding emerged as a reaction to architecture, allowing people to reinterpret space on their terms. The contentious leisure activity exemplifies an underlying urge to do more than passively receive the urban environment. An overreliance on the universal experience has generated a desire to engage with architecture not as predetermined but as fluctuating, connected to the mind and body. This thesis explores how an unconventional spatial practice could help design architecture, providing occupants more opportunities to engage with the urban environment. Interpretive research is utilised to learn about skateboarding, play and the body. Following this, experimental and mixed media research applies the established knowledge through iterative design tests. The research reimagines Wellington's Civic Square before creating an urban network of appropriative follies in Wellington's CBD. The tests aim to challenge spatial demarcation conventions, rethink the status quo for desirable public spaces and identify ways street skateboarding's rationale can be integrated into the design process. The findings contribute to the discourse around urban play and advocate for more body-oriented design in the public realm. While skateboarding is one small thread in a much larger conversation, its teachings around designing better for the body warrant exploration—the prospect of channelling some of this understanding into more common spatial practices is the motivation for this research.