Who Wrote This Book?
Iain Borden is the author of Skateboarding, Space and The City. He is the vice-dean at Bartlett University in London. He is an architectual historian, but not a skateboarder. While he may not be a skater, he respects the sport and is interested in the relationship he and fellow architects have with skateboarders. Iain Borden wrote this book as a informational research book. He is not distincly making a point, but rather laying out the facts of skateboarding's affect on urban architecture. He is more than well studied on this topic, and is probably the most credibal person to ever write a book about skateboarding. Not only that, but Borden put a lot of research into this book, and you can tell through how much he knows about the history of a sport he does not even participate in. He does not miss a single detail, and does an amazing job of covering all the necisary information without just writting a text book. The craziest part about Borden's book is, while not really trying to make an argument, he is almost bias toward skateboarders, and he is the architect! Even while being semi for skate freedom, he has an amazing reputation at his university and has written many other books and articles. In the end, obviously I could not have written this book better myself, but Borden also really hit all the key points and never said a single bad thing about us damn skater kids. If this reputable scholar can handle us, my only question is why can't the rest of the world?
The Big Idea
The primary subject of this book is not a single specific place or moment, or a specific person or persons, but it is a practice, a particular patterning of space-time produced from a specific body-centered origin, and its consideration of the production of space, time, and the subject of urban skateboarding and its affect on urban architecture. This is basically what the book is about. When writing this book, Borden does not take a stand for any side, he basically reports on it from a third person view. This can be good because the reader can get all the facts, no matter what they believe, and then decide for themselves what to think of the book. The only part of this that is bad, is that the reader cannot really understand the struggle of skateboarders over time, they just see these empty facts. Borden starts this book by hitting on the history of skateboarding across all time periods, while sprinkling in how architecture has changed the sport, and how the sport has changed arcitechture. His main point is that no matter what architects do, the sport of skateboarding is an everflowing practice. You stop them from skating bowls and they move on, basically you can't contain us. No matter what, there will be an arcitechual feat that skaters will learn to use, and then the arcitects will make it unskatable. This proccess is never ending, but shows the amount of creative persiverance skateboarders hold. While prooving this statement, Borden uses only legitament facts, probably to keep himself safe. Because he is writing about those damn skater kids, the architect community could come after him, but by providing the correct facts, they cannot dispute him. While using only facts, and only true facts, Borden does not leave a single stone unturned. Even when discribing the act of skateboarding, and the parts of it that do not involve architecture, he goes in depth, leaving no information left out. As a skater, I enjoyed this because I got to learn so much about my sport, even though this book is not a pureley skate history book (like those would ever exist). Honestly, in the end it is impossible for me to think of anything that Borden could have done better with this book. He makes great points about not only skateboarders, but about how all of us utilize architecture. He says architects don't design space, they design physical features, but the way others interpret these features creates space. While skateboarders are the most noticed in their interpritation of physical features, we all use features for purposes they were not intended for, its just that nobody likes skateboarders, so they are the ones being noticed. Maybe, someday, we could all just see that we are doing what skaters do, and we need to stop discriminating just because skaters have 4 wheels, and you may have two legs or two wheels.
This book, written by Iain Borden, is about skateboarding and the affects architechture has on it and how it affects architecture.
Iain Borden, the author of this book, works in the architecture part of a London University. He has come to respect how skaters use architecture for a purpose it was not intended for.
Iain Borden describes how maybe skaters are not so bad, without directly saying those words. Who knows, maybe he will show up to the next Liqwood slide jam.
This book, written by Iain Borden, is about skateboarding and the affects architechture has on it and how it affects architecture.
Liqwood Boards
est. 2010
Skateboarding's Relations to more than just Skaters.
Get to know the sport that the world has learned to love, and hate.