Reinvention of an icon

Prahran Skatepark and Basketball Court in Melbourne 

published in sb magazine 4/2024 

This project proves that it is possible to redesign a sports facility without robbing it of its soul. Together with local skaters, CONVIC has created a safe facility that reflects the needs of the community and embraces the long history of skating in Melbourne. Located close to the city centre, Prahran Skatepark and Basketball Court is a vibrant urban sanctuary where everyone is welcome to get into action or hang out.
 

The first version of the long-evolving Prahran skatepark was built in 1987. Because of it’s long historic presence in Melbourne’s skate culture, the Prahran skatepark has been a high profile inner city facility becoming an icon of Melbourne and Australian skate culture with many famous pro skaters such as Tony Hawk, Cristian Hosoi and Renton Millar visiting the facility throughout the years.

In designing the new space, CONVIC worked closely with local skaters and the community to create a design that truly reflected the community requirements and needs. A key objective formed from the stakeholder group was to replicate in a modern way a number of the much-loved features from the old park within the new space. One of these obstacles was the much-loved vertical ramp, a free to use, one of a kind structure in Australia. CONVIC re-built the new vertical ramp to international competition standards so that it can be utilized as an Olympic training facility for current and future athletes.