BV-BIKES
Year 3 Semester 2
NUS Options Studio -A Bicycle Pavilion
Supervisor: Hans Brouwer
Student: Fong Shi Yuan
A Pavilion of Bicycle Roof // The Exposition of Structure
The site is an existing car park anchored to a railway corridor extension, wedged beneath a busy traffic junction situated amidst the intersection of work, live and play space. The focal point of the project rests on the ubiquity of rental bikes along the corridor extension.
The mass-produced, cheap, and almost disposable nature of rental bikes made of metal is an irony that runs against the nature of cycling as a sustainable mode of transport and recreational activity. Following the idea sustainability, timber becomes a logical choice of material as known for its near zero carbon footprint.
In the integration of both bicycles and its proposed hub, timber becomes the material that anchors the project in it tectonics as an emphasis of the sustainable nature of cycling and the bicycle. The roof trusses are derived from standard mass produced, low-cost plywood bicycle frames that are used for rental bikes dispatched along the railway corridor.
In a display of its durability and strength, the self supporting structural pleat formed integrates the entire glazed roof. The entirety is envisioned as a visual spectacle that blends quietly in with the residential buildings, the vaulted roof positions its open ends towards streets, extending a visual engagement with the passers-by.
Sculptural concrete buttress forms the tropical interface between timber and the ground, receiving the structural load from the long spanning glulam vaults. This creates the tropical shelter condition of modulating daylight penetration and protection from rain while promoting natural ventilation with the open ends of the obliquely shaped roof plan.
