Where Art, "Repurposing" & a Church All Collide

In the category of "green buildings," it's been said that the greenest building is one that's already standing. This is particularly true if that building is not currently being used. By adapting and reusing a building, you give it new life. (Hence it's common name: "adaptive reuse!"

Here's where art, repurposing, & a church collide.

Picture a 100-year old church in Llanera, Asturias in Spain. Abandoned, it could have been just as easy to tear it down. But instead, it was transformed in a unique & unusual way: into a colorful indoor skatepark. Artist "Okuda" San Miguel added geometric shapes & color to transform the church into the newly named "The Kaos Temple" with strong messages of nature:

"In general, for the last few years my work talks a bit about the war between nature's forces and the human being; between modernity and roots. Self-destruction, existentialism, things like that....I like using contradictions which invite people to reflection."

I can only imagine what the experience of skateboarding would be like in this setting!




Other buildings have come about by way of adaptive reuse.  Check them out here:

• "World's 'Most Beautiful Gas Station' Converted into Cultural Center"

• "Abandoned Walmart Turned Into Giant Public Library"

• "10 Repurposed Industrial Buildings That Were Previously Abandoned" (of which, I delighted myself in that I have been to Mass MoCA: Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art!)

• "Repurposed Architecture: Finding New Meanings in Abandoned Factories, Monasteries and Homes"

Images from http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/church-transformed-psychedelic-sistine-chapel-skateboarders-okuda-san-miguel.html and http://laiglesiaskate.com/?lang=en#reservations; Video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSKbgbEcjNs