red bull builds skate ramp on centro administrativo fernando ferrari

Red bull’s skate ramp emerges in Porto Alegre, Brazil

Red Bull constructs a temporary curved skate ramp onto the facade of the Centro Administrativo Fernando Ferrari building in Porto Alegre, Brazil. A site to one of the largest skateboarding projects, the structure dubbed Red Bull Building Drop is for Brazilian skateboarder Sandro Dias, who broke two Guinness World Records after dropping in from the curved façade of the 22-story building.

During the project, the skateboarder hit a speed of 103 kph, skating from a height of 70 meters with a drop of 60 meters, measured from the lowest point of the ramp to the platform. Safety was integrated into the ramp design. At the end of the ramp, MotoGP crash pillows were installed, and these devices, normally used in motorcycle racing, helped stop a speeding Sandro Dias after hitting above 100 kilometers per hour. In addition to the crash pillows, the skateboarder wore a spine protector as part of his equipment to make sure that the risks of such a descent were reduced as much as possible while still allowing for world record speeds.

all images courtesy of Red Bull | photo by Fabio Piva

Concrete structure onto Centro Administrativo’s building

Red Bull’s skate ramp on the Centro Administrativo Fernando Ferrari building took around one month of preparation and another month for actual building. The original building façade, made of concrete, was unsuitable for skating because of the cracks and surface wear, so the brand’s team had to install a plywood overlay across the building’s curve. Around 800 wooden boards created a continuous surface that allowed Sandro Dias to move from the 70-meter starting platform down to the temporary quarter pipe at ground level.

The skate ramp itself was temporary, with the plywood surface mounted onto the building’s exterior curve, cladding the concrete in a smooth finish. Metal components supported the wooden panels, and after the Red Bull event, around 115 tonnes of material were planned for repurposing. The wooden boards would be donated to local non-governmental organizations or used as biomass, while the scrap metal would be recycled to make sure that the ramp construction would not contribute significantly to landfill waste.

Red Bull builds a skate ramp onto the Centro Administrativo Fernando Ferrari | photo by Marcelo Maragni

Dubbed largest temporary skate ramp constructed

The skate ramp’s significance lies in both its scale and its cultural context. It became the largest temporary skate ramp ever constructed, one done by Red Bull, with a height and slope never attempted before (towering 88.91m-high structure). For decades, local skaters had joked about the Centro Administrativo Fernando Ferrari building being a skateable surface, even creating digital mock-ups of someone riding down it.

A structure honoring the economist and politician Fernando Ferrari, the concrete office building was completed in 1987 and designed by architects Charles René Hugaud, Leopoldo Costanzo, Ivanio Fontoura, and Luis Carlos Macchi. At the present time, Red Bull has temporarily turned it into a Building Drop, making the urban legend a real physical structure, and in doing so, it created a new benchmark for what can be achieved in skateboarding design.

the building becomes a site to one of the largest skateboarding projects