What role will bicycles play in the cities of tomorrow? Their implementation as a more sustainable form of transportation for commuting to work or school, as well as for various household and recreational activities, has become an opportunity for thousands of architects and urban planners.
There are innovative cases, such as the HO Building in Argentina, which aim to incorporate bicycles into their interiors through ramps, pathways, and parking facilities designed to accommodate this future urban transport. However, we wanted to go further and bring you recent examples from different parts of the world.
Parking areas, lanes, bridges, and other exclusive bicycle infrastructures are being integrated into urban centers to provide spaces that complement these urban mobility systems. This encourages the interaction between pedestrians and cyclists, while also taking into account the technical, construction, and furniture requirements necessary to improve the quality of life for residents.
Bicycle Parking in Cities
When designing bicycle parking facilities, it is essential to consider a series of factors that provide users with the necessary safety and comfort for their transportation needs. Often, finding nearby spaces to store bicycles involves taking into account economic, social, cultural, and geographical factors that support the planning and organizational decisions of establishments.
Bicycles and Electric Scooters Parking Space / m2 arquitectas
- Location: Barcelona, Spain
- Year: 2021
"In recent years, users of large office buildings are increasingly demanding safe proper space to bike or scooter from their homes to their workplaces. Barcelona city has a generous network of bicycle lanes, but it is now time to update the new mobility systems interiors that have already invaded the city. The commission given to us by 'Colonial Real inmobiliaria' supports this new sustainable transportation model and, based on this premise, identifies the obsolescence of a space in the basement of their property that was previously underutilized as a storage room."
Bicycle Parking Main Station Karlsruhe / TAFKAL
- Location: Karlsruhe, Germany
- Year: 2018
[...] "The city decided that this would be a unique opportunity to send a signal to its community: Karlsruhe would leave behind its outdated, car-friendly infrastructure, encouraging people to use bicycles and increasing their share in the city's traffic by 30%. As the largest vehicle parking was coming to an end, the city of Karlsruhe chose to invest, not in a space for cars, but in a modern bicycle parking facility"
Bicycle Pavilion / WAW architects
- Location: Halle, Belgium
- Year: 2020
"The design includes a new bicycle pavilion for 58 bicycles located on the site of the OCMW/City of Halle and more specifically in the slope of a “residual parcel” between the access road to the car park behind the Social House and the car park of the residential care center “Zonnig Huis” next to it. In order to match the design language with the existing architecture, the choice was made for a facade finish in expanded metal as previously used in the realization of the Social House (also a realization by WAW architects)."
Nørreport Station / COBE + Gottlieb Paludan Architects
- Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
- Year: 2015
"Nørreport Station in Copenhagen is Denmark’s busiest transport hub. It was originally established in 1916, modernized in 1934, and in need of fundamental renovation in 2012. Following three years of construction work, the station in the heart of Copenhagen has been transformed into an open and accessible urban space with a clear focus on the needs of pedestrians and cyclists."
[...] "The station and the forecourt are used by about 350,000 train passengers and passers-by on a daily basis, making it Denmark’s busiest transport hub. Therefore, the efficiency of the flows created was a crucial aspect of the project proposal from the outset. In addition, priority was given to making space for an urban atmosphere with activities that reflect the vibrant, dynamic metropolitan city of Copenhagen. In line with this idea, the parked bicycles are not hidden away; on the contrary, they are on display as an important aspect of the life of the city and of Copenhagen’s identity as the world’s best city for cyclists."
Bicycle use and the Social Interaction of its Users
The combination of programs centered around the use of bicycles often brings with it an increase in the social interaction of its users due to the various and diverse activities that can be carried out together. Additionally, these spaces can become meeting points where people of different ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds come together for various purposes.
Coffee and Bikes / BureauVanEig + Biq architecten
- Location: Delft, Netherlands
- Year: 2018
"The main challenge in the design brief was to transform the large bicycle storage into an attractive hangout spot. This was achieved by positioning the relatively small coffee bar and workshop into an elongated and transparent volume on a green slope, relating to the central TU Delft square on one side and the bicycle storage on the other, underneath a big bicycle deck. This position gives the building the appearance of a pavilion rather than storage."
[...] "This new bicycle pavilion generates liveliness a social control at the heart of the TU campus. By designing an all-sided building, providing a spacious place orientated to the sun, and by positioning the coffee bar on the square in an elongated shape, a bicycle pavilion has been created where one can meet easily and have a pleasant stay. A formerly bare bicycle shed has been turned into a popular place that enhances the liveability and social cohesion of the surroundings."
Cycling Center / Ferdinand and Ferdinand Architects
- Location: Tiszafüred, Hungary
- Year: 2016
"10- 15 years ago the topic of mobility gained momentum in the Hungarian contemporary architecture. Many young architects realized that a major task of the next generation of architects/engineers and urban designers will be the redefinition and reshaping of the existing urban infrastructure. Architecture and mobility will have implications not only on the traffic systems (means of traffic) of the 21st century, they will have an impact on social spaces, public parks, as well."
[...] "And the regular one-day cycling program looks like this: families or tourist groups arrive by car or by bust to the closed parking area, they change to their own or rented bikes, if they need any information, they contact the person at the information desk, then set out for the 50km (roughly 30 miles) bicycle road. When they get back at the end of the day, they can have a shower, change, have their vehicles repaired or maintained, have refreshments at the coffee shop, chill out, and continue their tour."
Bridges, Lanes, and Traffic Infrastructure for Cyclists
When cycling in natural or urban environments, infrastructure tailored to cyclists' needs and in harmony with the surrounding context provides the framework for journeys and experiences that, at times, coexist with other modes of transportation or interact with the site's natural conditions. Planning bicycle routes while considering their role in society contributes to achieving more sustainable cities in the fight against climate change.
The Dark Line Path / mICHELE & mIQUEL + dA VISION DESIGN
- Location: Ruifang District, Taiwan
- Year: 2022
"In 2018, a contest was called to create a hiking route between Mudan and Sandiaoling that included 2 historic railway tunnels and a connection, to be invented, to replace the bridge over the Keelung River washed away by floods.
We took a clear option: to preserve the post-industrial landscape with all its historical and ecological depth. The passage of time has produced, along this route, structural, ecological, atmospheric, acoustic, chromatic, and luminous changes, which are the heart of our proposal."
Bike Path / Batlleiroig
"The architecture practice of Batlle i Roig Arquitectura has designed an 890-metre pedal path, a small surgical intervention that connects the Forum with the Carretera de les Aigües track, with Collserola Park, and with Esplugues and other towns and cities in the Baix Llobregat along Avinguda Diagonal."
[...] "The project is located at one of the most difficult points in the metropolitan road network: the junction that connects Barcelona’s Avinguda Diagonal with Avinguda dels Països Catalans in Esplugues de Llobregat, a barrier for pedestrians and bicycles for sixty years. The firm, resolute commitment of Batlle i Roig to soft mobility and a more biophilic city prompted them to design a gently sloping cycle lane in a renaturalised, landscaped environment that acts as a vantage point over the city and connects the urban network of cycle lanes with the system of free spaces in Collserola Park."
LightPathAKL / Monk Mackenzie Architects + Landlab
"LightPathAKL transforms six hundred meters of redundant highway infrastructure into a dynamic cycleway completing a vital link in Auckland’s inner city cycle network.
LightPathAKL was initiated when a study identified the potential of an unused former highway offramp to be repurposed to form the western route of an inner city cycleway and complete Auckland’s inner city cycle network."
Bicycle Bridge Across the Sava River / dans arhitekti
- Location: Bohinjska Bistrica, Slovenia
- Year: 2013
"The bicycle bridge across the Sava River is part of the touristic bicycle path that connects Bohinjska Bistrica village with the Bohinj Lake and leads further towards the mountains. The new bicycle bridge is an attractive functional and visual complement to the sensitive environment of the Bohinj area."
The text excerpts have been extracted from the respective project descriptions.
