For over twenty years, Darren White has been creating and skating in skateparks all across Australia and the world. Starting from a young age, he informally designed and created skate ramps. Then decided to take that childhood passion to a professional level.
In 1994, he helped design, build, and manage Victoria’s only indoor skate facility, The Shed, in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs. A few years later, he coupled that grassroots experience with a formal design and drafting education and went on to found Baseplate in 2000.
Sketch and Skate in 3D
Starting with a model in SketchUp Pro, White puts together a design package that has the traditional plans, elevations etc., and also includes a link to the model in Kubity—which is exported from SketchUp in one click with Kubity. “Kubity has great lighting and material representation without doing any additional work”, he says of the results.
I use Kubity for all my skatepark and residential work as it’s the most efficient and effective way to show a client the design.
Darren White, Principal, Baseplate AUS
The greatest advantage of using Kubity to communicate in 3D is the ability for the design to be understood by anyone. It can be difficult to interpret 2D plans if you are not familiar with reading them, so having a 3D of the actual building is an extremely valuable tool.
Using Kubity for several years already, White loves being able to communicate his design ideas to anyone, anywhere; “I had a builder ask about a difficult roof intersection as they couldn’t see what was happening behind an area that was obscured on the 2D elevations. I sent the model to his phone and instantly got a message back asking if I do this for all my designs!”
Making Magic
White usually shows a version of the building with the roof on and the roof off, so his clients can look at the overall building and also walk themselves through each room.
Seeing the skateparks in 3D give a greater sense of the space—which is important to show how it will function and flow. He also likes sharing the 3D at community meetings with the skaters on their phones, which he considers an important step in handing over ownership of the design to the end user.
It’s fast, easy to use and contains a bit of magic.
Even after using Kubity for a few years, he says he’s still impressed when you scan the QR code and it pops onto your phone (or someone else’s) in a couple of seconds. “I love it. It’s my favourite app and I’m so thankful that Lauris from Constructo Skateparks put me onto it when he visited Melbourne a few years ago”.
And what do his clients have to say about Kubity? “‘Wow’ and ‘That’s very cool’ are the two most popular reactions from my clients,” he says.
Over the years, White has been instrumental in developing structural designs for skateparks that are now industry standard across Australia. He regularly skates the parks he designs and continues to listen and respond to community concerns and needs for their skateparks. Having a tool that allows his to easily communicate his design ideas in 3D is essential to maintaining a dialogue with the community.
As a last word, White says, “I plan to use Kubity as long as I’m designing; it’s my favourite app on my phone and integral to the work I do. To the Kubity team, thank you for making this—it’s amazing!”
BASEPLATE is a skatepark and building design agency, based in Melbourne, Australia. Check out some of their projects with Kubity in your browser, or with the Kubity Go app for iOS and Android:
Narangba Skatepark – https://www.kubity.com/p/c7FaOy – Designed in collaboration with East by West
Beaconsfield Skatepark – https://www.kubity.com/p/SkyW0t – Designed in collaboration with Playce
Craigieburn Skatepark – https://www.kubity.com/p/xI6ZBy
Prince St external – https://www.kubity.com/p/9rbFjs
Prince St internal – https://www.kubity.com/p/9SLOTA
Napoleon St external – https://www.kubity.com/p/3Jvruh
Napoleon St Internal – https://www.kubity.com/p/qH22Xh
Williamstown Rd external – https://www.kubity.com/p/cHQrtw
Williamstown Rd internal – https://www.kubity.com/p/8mx2K4
Start your free trial of Kubity today!
Kubity Blog 