Unusually for an extreme park, this - Russia’s largest - is a free and open public space. Besides offering much-needed professional training premises for Olympic athletes, it crucially addresses the city’s lack of modern, attractive public spaces for young people, which previously saw skateboarders and BMX enthusiasts practising on unsafe, underground sites. Extreme sports champions were consulted from design through construction. The completed outdoor facility includes a concrete skatepark with street plaza and pool; small and large pump tracks; air park; areas for streetball, parkour, and workout; and a mini-pavilion with lockers, showers, and WCs. The skateable street furniture also serves as vandal-proof flower beds. The riverside site is on the pedestrian route between Gorky Park and the Kremlin, drawing visitors in. Side surfaces of street plaza elements bear mosaics inspired by Soviet monumental art, while the streetball area’s colours echo those of summer sunsets seen from embankment. Grass covers peripheral surfaces.

Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture