Configurations

The Planter Bike Rack comes in a variety of configurations, depending on the actual bike parking needs of any given area with units stacking back to back in particularly dense areas. And since each pole locks into a separate receiving hole in the bottom of the concrete portion, a bench can be swapped out for two of the poles using the same bend geometry.

The Planter Rack

Here's our entry, the Planter Bike Rack. This first image shows two units back to back, with space for up to 12 bikes (fourteen if you crammed them in). The whole unit is comprised of several pieces: a concrete planter, with a thick lip for bikers and pedestrians to balance a bag on (one of the behaviors that came up from our research) and steel bent tube bars. The triangular loop on the end can engage several different points on a bike, providing security.

Cityracks competiton

We wanted to expand the scope of our furniture design beyond the home and entered the recent CityRacks competition. We sought to engage the entire city in the design of a new bike rack. We researched the behaviors of cyclists and everyday pedestrians to come up with a hybrid bike rack system that provides customizable bike parking and seating areas. In keeping with New York's PlaNYC and the One Million Trees initiative, we incorporated a planter for local greenery. See the images below for some of the thinking behind the rack.