Urban Dynamics
A study of how skateboarding movement can inform architectural design. Rodrigo Gallardo translates tricks, trajectories, and sequences into drawings, parametric rules, and fabrication studies.
2024 · MIT 4.184 design workshop
2026 · Motion-capture extension
Research and design: Rodrigo Gallardo
Workshop advisor: Mark Goulthorpe
Related project: Kinetics of Urban Movement exhibition →
Leif · Ollie study. Frame from the reference footage.
The 2024 workshop asked how AI-informed design could expand the possibilities of skate architecture. Gallardo studied how skaters reinterpret ledges, rails, and transitions, treating movement as an input to design.
The drawings break tricks into actions—popping, sliding, leveling, and landing—and connect those sequences to a configurable kit of parts. Plan and axonometric studies compare possible lines through the same obstacles. Three design directions emerged: rule-based layouts, force-informed fabrication studies, and interactive skate structures.
The later motion study pairs Leif’s reference footage with 18 captured attempts in the shared viewer below. Timing follows matching capture starts; independent camera-timecode calibration has not been verified.
Rodrigo Gallardo. A configurable arrangement of ramps and obstacles on a common grid.
Rodrigo Gallardo. Plan and axonometric views compare movement lines through the same obstacle arrangement.
Rodrigo Gallardo. A configurable arrangement of ramps and obstacles on a common grid.
Motion and geometry
Leif’s ollie footage is paired with a fixed orthographic elevation extracted from Gallardo’s exhibition model. Colored cues mark the landing; the transition from a flat pad to the ramp profile is a conceptual design study.
Movement reference: Leif · Geometry and design: Rodrigo Gallardo.
From motion to matter
Layered concrete forms bring the study into physical space.
Concrete 3D printing: Hive ASMBLD. Process documentation supplied by Rodrigo Gallardo.
Exhibition — Kinetics of Urban Movement
Curators: Rodrigo Gallardo, Shane Yee, and Bobby King
Graphic design: Andrea Sáenz Barela
Exhibition photography: Estefan Obasi
Concrete 3D printing: Hive ASMBLD
The exhibition brings skateboarding, architectural models, and urban history into a shared space.
Beyond the exhibition
The printed concrete ramps now sit within an existing skate spot, joining a landscape of ledges and bowls.
Concrete 3D printing: Hive ASMBLD. Installation photographs supplied by Rodrigo Gallardo.
The exhibition received a 2026 AIA Houston Presidential Citation, recognizing curators Bobby King, Rodrigo Gallardo, and Shane Yee.
