CONCRETE
constructionmanagermagazine.com
Below: The fourstorey building is a parallelogram on plan, splaying outwards then back in at the top
“On a traditional slab we would probably pour continuously from start to finish. Because we were spraying the concrete, we marked the bowls into sections and completed one section per day”
MATT ROWE
Nigel Griffiths, Jenner
CURVY CONCRETE FORMS FOLKESTONE’S SKATEPARK KENT CONTRACTOR JENNER IS WORKING ON A UNIQUE SKATEPARK IN COASTAL TOWN FOLKESTONE THAT WILL FEATURE THE WORLD’S FIRST SUSPENDED CONCRETE SKATE BOWLS. SITE MANAGER NIGEL GRIFFITHS EXPLAINS THE TECHNICAL CHALLENGES TO NEIL GERRARD
The idea of skateboarding may terrify Nigel Griffiths, site manager at Kent-based contractor Jenner, but he is a self-professed concrete lover, which makes him the ideal person to take charge of F51’s construction; it is believed to be the world’s first multi-storey skatepark and the first to feature suspended concrete skate bowls. F51 is the brainchild of local philanthropist Roger De Haan, former chief executive of Folkestone-based insurance group Saga, who has poured millions of pounds into the regeneration of the town. Originally destined to become a multi-storey car park, the concept for the site on the corner of Tontine Street and Dover Street gradually morphed into a plan for a skatepark that is being funded by the Roger De Haan Charitable Trust and will be managed by the local Shepway Sports Trust. Work on the skatepark, a short walk from Folkestone Harbour, where De Haan is backing the construction of 1,000 seafront homes (the first phase of which is also being built by Jenner), began in March 2018. The four-storey building is an unusual shape, a parallelogram on plan, with the upper floors splaying outwards and then back in at the top. It is a concrete frame up to the first floor, then a steel and concrete composite above. The glass-wrapped ground floor will feature an unheated ‘urban’
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