California Skateparks’ Snake Run

A return to skateboarding's roots through innovative design and construction at Camp Woodward

Designed to mimic the sloping school yards and dried concrete waterways of Southern Califorinia, where skateboarding’s roots reach deepest, the snake run is the most fundamental form of all skatepark designs. While most snake runs are characterized by a long narrow path—or ditch—flanked by banks and berms to channel the rider through without pushing, the freshly poured concrete at Pennsylvania’s legendary camp Woodward resembles something …

Institute of Intimate Museums

Pasta boxes become microscopic museums

A collection of dioramas by artist Kenji Sugiyama, “Institute of Intimate Museums” proved to be one of the most engaging displays at Scope Basel 2012. Spanning the artist’s output from 1999 to 2008, the works serve as clever variations on traditional diorama art—cramped consumer boxes containing lilliputian scenes of museum-goers standing in halls of shrunken art. Within the setting of the fair, Sugiyama’s museums forced …

Metropole Aluminum House

Jean Prouvé's 1949 design steals the show at Design Miami/Basel

As Design Miami/Basel continues to establish itself as the dominant satellite fair of Switzerland’s Art Basel, Galerie Patrick Seguin upped the ante this year by installing a 1,000 square-foot aluminum structure designed by Jean Prouvé. The Metropole Aluminum House was originally created as a school for rural communities that could be pre-fabricated and erected on-site. While the structure was never implemented on a mass scale, …