Vancouver-based creative studio Zenga Bros has created a series of furniture pieces that convert into skate ramps, rails and quarter pipes as a “radical way to transform office space”.
Supported by watch brand Swatch, the Skate Break collection consists of five pieces of furniture including an oversized steel lamp and a boardroom table that can be transformed to create skateable pieces for a more playful work environment.
Designers and brothers Benny and Christian Zenga of Zenga Bros worked with skateboarder Andy Anderson to test and prototype the pieces, which they displayed in an interactive exhibition in Vancouver earlier this year.
According to the pair, the project was part of a longer-term vision to create a “dream studio space” to host their own practice, which includes design, building, filmmaking, and skating.
“Are there more radical ways that we could transform the office space?” Christian Zenga told Dezeen. “Skateboarding is one of the only acts that I do that’s like a meditation. It requires focus because it’s dangerous, but also it’s a very creative thing.”
“Unlike other exercise, skateboarding is like a form of play. So we asked, ‘what if you played during your lunch break’?”
Largely relying on steel, pulleys, release pins, levers and thick layers of plywood, the Zengas designed and built two lounge chairs, a boardroom table, a desk, a lamp and a small truck that all open into various combinations for skateboarding.
The materials were used because they proved durable enough to handle the “abuse” skateboarders put on objects and also provided a “retro” aesthetic.
“The aesthetics came out of having to follow transitions and things you could skate, but also the durability,” said Christian. “The plywood was intentional too, [we wanted] a retro, 1970s, cool, studio space.”
One of the more striking pieces, the Lamp Ramp is a six-foot-tall steel object that resembles a floor lamp with a fanning shade and arched stand. The removal of a release pin allows the shade to lean forward, where it eventually rests on the ground and creates the base of a volcano ramp and rainbow rail.
A set of dumbells attached to the piece acts as counterweights, a design decision that came out of quick, “fun” manual prototyping the Zengas said drove the project.
“If you look closely at the lamp ramp, it actually has these large dumbbells on it as counterweights,” Benny Zenga told Dezeen. “The design-build prototype was phenomenal. When we landed on the final design, we had built it within a week.”
“It’s fun to have had that opportunity to immerse ourselves in the project, but also the speed, that iteration of build, it put ourselves to the test, it was a challenge.”
The collection’s boardroom table, lounge chairs and desk also fold open with the release of pins or latches.
The Desk Ramp is a “standing desk” attached to a wooden wall unit backed by a large computer screen, pinboard and shelving. A lever releases the desk, which slides down a hidden track, and converts into a ramp.
The screen is protected by transparent plexiglass so a skater can traverse over it on their way up the wall.
The brothers also converted a small, electric orange truck into a mobile ramp for studio “transportation”. Called the Ramper Camper, it also contains a woodstove and a mini bookshelf.
It’s part of a larger design concept by the pair to create a skateable “house truck” that could be taken into communities that lack access to skating.
“The idea was you could do a cross-country trip with a pro skater and go to small towns that usually wouldn’t have a skater show up, because there’s no park,” said Christian. “So it was sharing and playing with communities that don’t get access to that.”
Ultimately, the pair hopes the collection creates dialogue and experimentation.
“We really want to encourage other people to mess around,” said Benny. “Skaters look at the world like this already, skaters look at things from another perspective. It’s a ‘what if’ dialogue – what would your studio look like?”
The Zenga Bros are a design and build studio based in Vancouver, Canada founded in 1999 by the Zenga brothers, a group of eight that specialise in skills ranging from architecture and filmmaking to fabrication and heavy machinery repair.
Other skating-related projects include a colourful, temporary skatepark by artist Raphaël Zarka and architect Jean-Benoît Vétillard that sat in front of the Centre Pompidou and a series of skateparks by PlayLab Inc in partnership with Vans.
The photography is by Gordon Nicholas
