© pictures and project: Adina Socol and Ralf van Tongeren
Living in the Netherlands comes invariably with a vehicle without which, nothing would work in the country: the bike ("fiets" for insiders). Riding a bike in the Netherlands is incredibly practical and gives you a sense of freedom in your movement. Until the moment you have to park it…
Wild bike-parkings are common in the Netherlands, however known for their sense of order and cleanliness. This explains the step taken by many cities to answer the growing need for bike storages that blend in the urban landscape.
This is how the city of Utrecht launched a competition 2 years ago for new solutions for bike storages. One of us, Adina Socol, was at the time associated with Ralf van Tongeren to answer that call. The "urban slinky" was born from this collaboration. We'll now let you discover this piece of "street furniture" as functional as fun!
© pictures and project: Adina Socol and Ralf van Tongeren
''Diversity –can bike storage adapt to different urban situation and be more than just a fix element to the city- and if it is possible, what other functions or materialization can it get?
The goal of this design was not only to give an answer to the insufficient number of bike storages in the city of Utrecht, but also to propose an element that is enough playful and flexible to transform itself and adapt to different areas of the city - an urban chameleon that can change not only color but materialization, shape and function as well.
The solution was found in the different given locations of the competition –squares and places near the walking paths along the shops where bike storages look deserted while not being occupied. In these situations, an added function to the bike supports such as sitting places, can bring an extra plus by keeping the object animated and functional during all the day or week moments.
Another item that led to the final design was the image aspect. The proposed locations are really different from spatial and image point of view so is the space available for storages. The new design has to be enough interesting when used in small scale but also dynamic when it comes to endless strips along the walking ways, and, due to its usage along the canals, also enough transparent for maintaining a direct visual connection between the street and the water.
This is how the idea of one repetitive frame-like element was born – a module that through its repetitive character can mould to different urban locations, composing in different shapes just like a slinky- toy. The module can get different colours in order to integrate in the surroundings and can be fixed directly on the ground with steel screws in prefab concrete support elements, it is easy to become bigger or smaller by adding or removing modules to the composition.
For a more dynamic image 5 standard elements were designed which can be composed in the same way as explained above.The proposed materialization is rounded 30mm diameter painted steel profiles -due to cost, strength and maintenance reasons but the solution can be easily adapted to wooden or carbon fiber profiles.''
© pictures and project: Adina Socol and Ralf van Tongeren
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