BIKE SHEDS ARE NO LONGER JUST A PLACE FOR A SNEAKY FAG
Yes the bike shed. In school it was the place for a sneaky fag at lunch but today they are at the heart of new ideas in urban planning and are new places which go beyond just keeping your bike safe, and dry.
Take the recently opened Bike Run H2 in Soho London. As a member you can securely lock your bike up inside for the day and use the changing room and shower facilities. But that’s not all the main feature is the gym, which specialises in cyclist led fitness equipment and classes like spinning. There is also a workshop to get your bike fixed and you can even leave your dry cleaning with them. A whole service proposition built around cycling. Neat.
With more of an architectural nod is the newly built Fietsenpakhuis in the city of Zaandam, Netherlands. A bike parking lot built by the architects Nunc Architects it was built with keeping the ecological footprint low. Built entirely from wood timber it also includes solar panels to power the building’s electricity.
However for something more hi-tec is the way the Japanese do bike sheds. They have a subterranean bike shed in a Tokyo train station. You put your bike on a rack and it takes it up into the storage bay with the other 9,000 bicycles it can hold – packing the bikes in like sardines. But you don’t have to find you bike, swipe your member pass and the robotic system brings it back to you in less than 27 seconds.
These beautiful felt tip bike illustrations were by Holly Wales (Great name). We like them because they have a kind of simple innocence to them.
Holly works with a number of awesome clients and is available for commissions. She also is heavily involved in education at a number of universities including Central St Martins, Brighton University and Winchester College of Art. She also runs OPEN in London, a studio with an emphasis on educations and entrepreneurship within design and illustration.
Follow Holly on Twitter @hollibobs
Forwarded to Biscuit Wheels via @mark_mccartney
If you are over in West London on Sunday, be sure to check out the cycle in cinema. Exactly as it says, this cycle in cinema is just like a drive in one, except without the cars.
What makes the Cycle in Cinema unique is that the audience hooks their bikes up to the generator and power the film. It takes 20 people all pedaling at the same time to power the film, if someone stops the film stops.
It’s Free.
Doors open: 7:30pm
Screening starts: 8pm
End: 9:15pm
And takes place here:
Pop-Up Cinema, 3 Acklam Road, W10 5TY
On Sunday they’ll be showing a film called ‘A Town Called Panic’; the trailer is here.
