EN 14974 – Skateparks

DSGN CONCEPTS

In April 2019, the fully revised EN 14974 “Skateparks – Safety requirements and test methods” is due for publication as a standard now applicable to outdoor and indoor facilities across all disciplines, its purpose being to simplify the evaluation of skatepark elements and the skating surface. The fact that the publication of this standard constitutes a transformation in the planning of skateparks is illustrated by how the standard has evolved.

When the first DIN standard for roller sports facilities was published in 1995, roller sport was still in its infancy in terms of safety. This was demonstrated clearly by its focus on several specific elements, which have often been used for the past 20 years as a “blueprint” for various skateparks. The result for a long time was small, demand-driven and often uniform skateparks without individual­ity. This changed in the early 2000s when skateboarding became increasingly popular and attracted growing interest from manufacturers. And this led to developments in standardisation.

Since a superficial revision of the standard would have been insufficient to accommodate all the changes, the EU standardisation committee was finally convened in 2014. Ingo Naschold from Germany, who has been an active skateboarder for almost 30 years and is now an established planner of urban movement spaces with DSGN CONCEPTS, has been decisively involved in pushing forward the revision. By working directly and intensively with the standard, the work of DSGN CONCEPTS testifies to a comprehensive and professional understanding of safety, which is essential to any planning.

DSGN Alexandra Kern sb 2 2019 skateanlage.jpg

Photo: Fabian Reichenbach

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