Bike sheds have something of a bad reputation in this country. Shoved away in the corner of a yard or school playground they are the buildings in or behind which people, usually young people, traditionally congregate to indulge in illicit behaviour. Smoking, drinking, canoodling. Or worse, stealing bikes! They seem to have an powerful, almost electromagnetic, ability to accumulate litter, abandoned bikes and rusty locks.
I can think of no bike shed (and I’ve seen a few I can tell you…) which might be considered a thing of beauty.
Until now. Hoping to breath new life into a building more usually assembled out of old angle iron a competition was recently set by Architects Journal magazine. The brief was to design a secure bike parking facility to be located on the South bank of the Thames in London outside the Tate Modern art museum and gallery. Clearly no rusty old bits of corrugated iron would do for such a prestigious site.
It’s rare in any field of human endeavour that something comes along which is a total game changer (and it certainly feels strange talking about a lowly bike shed in these terms) but Atmos’s entry is – to my eyes – just that. It’s a stunner.
Vaguely reminiscent of a beached whale carcass with it’s many ribbed construction their modular bike shed seems to float just off the ground and incorporates a glazed roof, a seating area for mending punctures and even alarmed wires threaded throughout the structure. They have given a lot of thought to how bikes of different shapes and sizes might be locked to it too – a feature you’ll appreciate if you’ve ever tried locking a bike which is anything less than conventional to some municipal facilities.
Alex Haw of Atmos Studio explains it thus:
“Broadly, our scheme is a simple attempt to make something less utilitarian, more experimental, & more functional. We’re proposing a CNC-carved structure out of laminated plywood components that strap together to form an integrated structure for both space & stand, & allow multiple possible locking positions for all sorts of bike shapes. Aside from our interests in design and experience, we really want it to work and be viable, safe and secure and functional. We’re proposing 5 layers of protection: transparency & visibility (community watch); grilled walls & roof barrier; door-lock entry system; reinforced stand structure; & alarmed wires threading through engraved slots within them.”
Check out the other entries and make your own prediction. The competition isn’t over yet but I know who my money is on -
See all the competition enties here
