More than ever, people are passive and connected only to their screens. Public space has an important role in our society

Over the last decade, Scandinavian cities have been at the forefront of a new sort of public space, encouraging skateboarders into the city centre by subtly incorporating skateable elements into urban designs. The same trend has been adopted across the Baltic Sea in Estonia, where fascinating urban interventions and abstract street furniture are reinvigorating public space. Landscape architect Terje Ong has redesigned urban areas, mostly in Tartu, but also in Narva, and Pärnu, making them more skater-friendly. I spent the day with Ong cruising around Tartu to discuss her work.

We ended the day in the Annelinn district where Terje completed one of her recent projects. The mikrorajoon, or micro-district, is build on an impressive grid system that links the Soviet-era apartment blocks by a network of pedestrian arteries. Before 2017, none of the empty spaces around the blocks were ever developed. Ong revamped these spaces, adding bright yellow skateboarding obstacles, as well as ping pong tables, basketball courts, and seating. Find out below why skateboarding is beneficial to Estonia’s cities, in her own words.