Innovative Placemaking Event Solutions by Sold Out Australia

ParkLife teamed up with Development Christchurch Limited (DCL), SCAPE Public Art and local artist Nathan Ingram to create an art court that brings colour, creativity, life and fun to the Christchurch seaside suburb of New Brighton.

There was an opportunity to build on the momentum of other foreshore projects and to develop the existing dilapidated basketball half court to appeal to older children and teenagers and to get the community active.

“We could see a great opportunity to take a loved asset and combine colour with function in what is really quite a concrete dominated urban space,” says Cath, DCL.

3X3 basketball is played on a half court and is regarded as the most popular urban team sport in the world and its promotion is a key focus of the world basketball organisation FIBA to encourage more children to get engaged with the game.  3X3 will feature at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 for the first time.

Design Competition SCAPE Public Art ran an open call selection process for local artists over 18 years of age to respond to a brief and submit designs for a ‘street art/basketball court’ design. ParkLife, provided the layout for the “3X3” half court and guidelines to ensure the art court could be delivered to endure the rigours of the outdoor environment, to maximise opportunities for competitive play, and to represent the chosen artist’s vision. Christchurch artist Nathan Ingram’s design was selected for the court. He captured the design brief to include aspects of New Brighton’s natural landscape, where the sea meets the land in a bold stylistic manner well suited to the big, broad canvas that was the basketball court.

Implementation Working with Nathan on colour selection and design layout, ParkLife translated a digital version of Nathan’s design through to the “real life” canvas of the court surface, while also incorporating the required lines and court competition dimensions within it. Nathan describes the move from small scale digitised version to real life as a slightly surreal process, a little nerve wracking, but ultimately extremely fulfilling.

"I was quite blown away by the execution of the design, I could not believe how well ParkLife got it down to the last millimetre. Being involved has got me thinking about what I would do in the next project like this," says Nathan. 

ParkLife use a high grade four coat sports surfacing system that delivers sharp colouring  with a high level of durability the tough public space environment demands.

“Cameron, ParkLife took the composition and marked it up to the exact millimetre on the court surface and it remained very true to what I had envisaged."

Outcome More than six months since the project was commissioned, Cath, DCL says the courts are proving more popular than ever.

“These sorts of projects are often also subject to tagging and graffiti.  But the fact it has been done by a local artist means it has been left alone and gets looked after by the locals.”  

In budgetary terms the project has also come in on budget and time, offering a very cost effective means of re-using a tired asset.

End to end, ParkLife provided complete design, supply and build service.

Rootball Parks are pop-up parks using future street trees. Their goal is to create permanent street improvements by using pop-up parks and associated events that foster creative programming and unexpected uses of underutilized spaces.