Planners and civilians alike often attempt to re-invison streets to accommodate bikers. In New York and in cities world-wide, planners have not only added bike lines to traditional vehicle roads, but have even created designated bike paths. Yet a group of Australian designers took this process a step further. FastCompany reached out and interviewed the team of designers lead by urban design professor Steven Fleming at Cycle Space who have imagined our urban spaces as if they were built around bikes, not cars. Here, they imagined an apartment building that would exist in a city that not only has infrastructure for bikes but is infrastructure for bikes (Fleming).
Read the full interview and see their designs here.
This and similar ideas would change we think about space and time. It might even make humans happier and close to being stress-free given that the idea targets not only circulation but public health. It would essentially change the way humans interact with each other and might even lead to other secondary benefits that aren't even anticipated at this point. Thanks for posting this!
ReplyDeleteI think this idea is really nice design wise, yet there are some technical issues that should be taken into consideration. Indoor ramps take up more space than stairs, which means more cost for developers and less rentable square footage and this could impact housing affordability. Also, the idea of eliminating other transportation methods such as public transit sounds unrealistic. Maybe this design idea can work in certain buildings such as student housing and on campus buildings, outdoor bike paths can extend into the buildings and create an indoor circulation element where students can move through their bikes.
ReplyDeleteThese ideas are very out there for most Americans to even consider but the designs to me look beautiful. I could see this happening if a new major city was built in a European country and it being a very popular destination. This past week there was the international climate meeting in Paris and although transportation is not the biggest creator of emissions it is a factor and ideas like this implemented could help reduce humans footprint on earth. In emerging markets like China where pollution is destroying air quality I am not sure if this would be viable because the air is polluted by energy creation ect. But in markets in Europe and other regions it just might work.
ReplyDelete