For a skating event held in Waco, Texas, USA, creative studio Zenga Bros has combined half pipes with elements of local architecture, such as wood shake, to create cabin-like gathering spaces for spectators within the ramps.

The project, deemed “rampitecture” by the Zenga Bros, was informed by childhood forts, the surrounding architecture of Waco, Texas and previous projects designed and built by the group of brothers, such as a mobile train-car ramp.

The Zenga Bros have designed and built skate ramps wrapped in wood shake. Top: Video of Swatch Nines event by Zenga Bros

The two “rampitecture” builds were placed on the borders of a man-made surf lagoon at Waco Surf Water Park as part of a Swatch Nines event, which combines creative, designed forward courses with a non-competitive, social environment for athletes.

Surfers and skaters participated in the three-day event.

The ramps have built-in spaces to hang out. Photo by Shane Kreutzer

“It goes back to building childhood ramps,” studio member Benny Zenga told Dezeen. “We had a ramp in the hayloft of a barn, which was very much like a clubhouse. That was probably the most direct relationship to where we went with rampitecture.”

The project consists of two, brightly coloured ramps. The Lagoon Ramp is made up of two interconnected half pipes, with a base that was installed semi-submerged in the lagoon.

The project was installed alongside a man-made surf lagoon in Texas

On one end of the pipe, a wooden lip juts outwards to cover a porch-like platform, while on the other side, there’s a covered passageway and a platform that sits on top for gathering and dropping in.

Across the lagoon, the Hangover Ramp sits hooked over a concrete ledge. A porch platform hovers above the water, while the remaining ramp stretches along the bank and ends in another covered passageway, which can be crawled into via a ladder.

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Plexiglass porthole windows and other nooks and crannies were placed around both ramps. They were finished with aqua blue wooden shakes, metal rocking chairs, potted plants, and even a fire pit, which was fired up during a nighttime skate session.

Christian and Benny Zenga, who took the lead on the design of the ramps, said a 2023 site visit to Waco and Waco Surf informed the project’s residential character and bright colours.

One of the ramps clamps down over a concrete wall

“Waco is a small town with a lot of wood shapes and metal roofs, and buildings with continuous additions on them,” Christian Zenga told Dezeen. “So the shape language came from doing a site visit there, and then the colours came from visiting Waco Surf.”

“Waco Surf is this surreal environment that’s half Texas, half Southern California, with surf dudes with long blonde hair wearing cowboy hats. It’s an interesting mix of colourful surf environment [and] a beat-up farmland environment. Bringing joy and colour to that pretty, colourless, stark desert environment was important for us.”

The Zengas spoke with pro skaters such as Andy Anderson and Mami Tezuka and pro surfer Coco Ho during the design process. Photo by Benny Zenga

The ramps were constructed as modular units with Zenga brother Aaron, at his workshop located just outside of Vancouver. The pieces were loaded into a semi-truck, then driven down to Texas.

After the Swatch Nines event, the brothers disassembled and reused the pieces in a different configuration for another event.

Benny and Christian said they’d like to eventually expand on the concept of “rampitecture” and referenced their past project, Skate Break, which combined skating infrastructure with office furniture, as a similar example.

“There’s a lot of humour in it, and it’s obviously a playful thing,” said Christian. “It’s like with the Skate Break project, it was a conceptual approach to asking, ‘can you add action sports into the office place?'”

“The way we see it, we’re expanding that world.”

Other skateboard design projects include a huge ramp installed down a building in Brazil and a bright-yellow ramp for LA art week 2024 by Playlab and American artist Sterling Ruby.

The photography is by Theo Acworth unless otherwise noted.

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