The Parkour Park Design Handbook
The growing popularity of parkour has led to an increasing number of projects that incorporate parkour areas into parks and other public spaces. At the same time, parkour’s novelty and the relative lack of precedents (at least in North America) are a source of confusion about what public, outdoor parkour facilities actually look like and how they function.
I have been designing facilities for parkour professionally since 2014 and have completed indoor and outdoor projects across the US and Canada. There will never be one “right” way to design for parkour, but this handbook is my attempt to briefly outline how I approach parkour design. Whether you are a landscape architect trying to situate a parkour park on your site plan, a parkour athlete helping out with a concept for your local community center, or a city planner considering a parkour park for your next capital project, I hope this handbook can help!
This handbook covers permanent, outdoor facilities and is written for North America, where, at the time of writing, there is no set of standards governing parkour parks. The UK and EU both have their own standards for parkour parks which should obviously be consulted when designing for those markets. Similarly, nothing written in this handbook replaces the need for having drawings checked by a structural engineer and ensuring that designs comply with local regulations.
Best of luck,
Colin MacDonald
PKV Design Director
Why build parkour parks?
As with skateparks and climbing walls, parkour parks are a bit of a contradiction for a practice born from appropriating space. Parkour parks are not a replacement for “wild” parkour spots, and many practitioners train on both. Purpose-built parkour areas offer:
An accessible and inviting place to learn, especially for beginners
A community hub and meeting place
A higher density of challenges than typically exists at wild spots
Structures that are difficult or impossible to find in the wild
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