2012 Newhouse project #20121078 | school bike shelter
- Overview
- Collect Info Completed
- Brainstorm Ideas Completed
- Develop Solutions Completed
- Final Design Completed
Welcome Chicago Public High School students!
These are the instructions for entering a project in Division 6 for the 2012 Newhouse Architecture Competition.
Bike racks and bike rider amenities are given little attention when schools are planned, and bike riders have little infrastructure support for their choice to ride to work or school.
In order to support healthy lifestyles we are asking you to design a bike shelter that will provide safe and secure storage, protection from Chicago weather (year around), and some amenities that would be helpful for bike riders to have when they reach school.
The project will either replace your existing bike storage area OR you can find a new location that would better serve the school. You must identify and justify the new location (eg. - visibility is better, or there is more room to maneuver).
Cuie Bike Shelter
Jim Rohn once said; “Whatever good thing we build ends up building us”, if we build this bike shelter it will change how we see things today in society and will influence our school to be physically fit. It will be highly beneficial not only to our school but to Chicago as well. A bike shelter will improve our school, our community, and even our city. I strongly believe that if a bike shelter is constructed in our school it will change how our school, our community and most importantly our city will view the bike rider’s life choice. It will bring a whole different side to living healthy and will promote fitness and exercise in our lives and everyone’s around us. A bike shelter in our school will be extremely beneficial for our school. Our school will be one of the first schools to have a bike shelter and will encourage other schools that have riders to make a shelter. The shelter will also benefit our school by promoting physical fitness and encourage teens to take their old bikes out of their garages and ride them to school. The bike shelter will help our community because the city will now have to enforce bike lanes in the streets to guide riders safely to school. This will benefit our community because it will force the city to fix the streets and will make communities safer because now the Chicago police department will have to make sure the lanes are safe for bike riders. This will not only benefit the school and community but our city as well. Cities will look at Chicago as a school that cares for better educations and start making changes in their cities. All these changes will highly benefit Chicago, our community and most importantly our schools. We must strive for better things that will little by little lift us up as being one of the best cities in America.
In the Collect Info step of the design process, you try to gather as much information as possible about your school's existing bike storage facilities, along with the students and staff who will use it. You can't propose new solutions until you figure out and document what the existing problems are.
Try This
- Do a site visit of your bicycle parking facilities and make notes, sketches, and take photographs. Note conditions that are unsafe, unsecure, or that are less than ideal.
- Look at other schools or public facilities to determine good / bad examples of how bikes are stored and if anything is done to accommodate riders needs when they get off their bike.
- Interview bike users and ask them what they would like to have in a bike shelter at their school or place of work.
- Calculate the number of bikes that park over a week, also inquire if bikes are registered with the main office and if so how many are registered with the school.
- Do an analysis at different times of the day and week and create an analysis with average usage and high / low points. Also determine if there are more bikes at the beginning of the week or end of the week.
- Measure and draw the existing bike parking area and locate and note existing structures such as fencing, bike rack (notate the type and material), show the size of a bike and its clearances on the plan. Include dimensions.
My work for the Collect Information step:
Well, I drew a few sketches to try to get a bigger picture of what i could possilbly do for my schools bike shelter. I had a problem trying to figure out whether it would be indoors or outdoors but at the end i might choose an indoor bike shelter.
In progress
In the Brainstorm Ideas step of the design process, you put some early ideas down on paper that show what you've found in the Collect Info step.
Try This
- As you are observing and making notes think about how your bike shelter is taking shape. Make side notes of where new elements may go or how you would change what is currently in place.
- Take note of unsafe conditions or conditions that do not make sense (For example, bicycles sticking out into a sidewalk or people having difficulty parking their bikes).
- Sit and study photographs of your site visit. If you can print and write comments of what you remember and note where you might change things and how.
My work for the Brainstorm Ideas step:
Brainstorm
In the Develop Solutions step, your rough ideas come together with drawings and models that can show others your solutions for a new bike shelter.
Try This
- Try out different ideas and save each “version”. You do not want to lose a good idea later! Other people viewing your project - other students around the country, your teacher, and mentors - want to see how your ideas have changed over time. This means that while you're working on your digital model, you’ll want to be sure to keep re-saving it with a new file name every few days as you work through the steps.
- Make a list of your ideas and associated sketches, or practice models. For your final upload you will want to write a short but effective paragraph of your process and what you found. This will inform the direction you will take for the final solution.
- Show your ideas to your teacher and peers for some feedback. You can also review your progress with the test group you may have interviewed and test whether your design would meet their needs or address their concerns. Learn from the feedback you receive and incorporate into your final design solution.
- Be sure to check out and make comments on other student bike shelter projects. Post a link to your project on your Facebook account.
- Review your design and test it against your own observations and review that it has met the project requirements. Did it meet the expectations of the end users that you spoke to?
- Do not leave work for the last minute! Going through a detailed design process requires time to gather information, develop ideas, and make improvements. This is difficult or impossible if you try to pull everything together a week before your project is due. Projects that are researched, developed, and well executed will always stand out!
My work for the Develop Solutions step:
After Brainstorming possible ideas for a good bike shelter, I designed a prototype. Afterwards many new ideas came to my mind. For example, I removed the entrance walls that didnt really make much sence where they were. Then I placed Automatic electronic doors in the front of the building. Now im working on how I could make a second floor to this building....
The final step of the design process is to create more finished drawings that illustrate your ideas to others. Remember, your explanation text, and the types of drawings, images, and models you share need to tell the whole story of your project to someone who may or may not have ever visited your school.
Be sure that you understand and meet all schedule deadlines and project data submission requirements.
The Newhouse Competition judges will be evaluating your design project on:
- The creativity of the final solution.
- If you have included all studies, observations, data, and calculations utilized for determining capacities, design considerations, and scale of final project.
- How well you showed the design process through sketches, notes, pictures, etc.
- How well your projects incorporates the following components:
Secure bike storage using common bike parking structures (bike racks), or some type of creative structure that is an “improvement” to what is currently installed and utilized at the school.
Shelter from the weather – it can be enclosed or partially enclosed.
Basic amenities: clean up or private shower facilities, personal lockers, small food kiosk or beverage bar, considerations for self performing bike maintenance, bike storage, information board(s).
Consideration for use at all hours and seasons.
My work for the Final Design step:
After analyzing all the data I’ve collected to create a well-structured bike shelter, I strongly feel like the final structure meets the necessities of every bike rider seeking shelter and rest for their bikes and themselves. The bike shelter will be placed behind the B-Building of Curie High School. I feel like it's a proper place for this bike shelter to be to meet the necessities of all riders from every direction. Also in this shelter I’ve included a second floor in which there's a rest area. In this resting area I’ve included a food court for hungry and thirsty bike riders. The food court will meet the necessities of all riders who are seeking food to replenish their strength to keep riding. In the rest area I’ve also included bathrooms, couches, and public computers. All these could meet the necessities of riders that need to use the bathroom, rest for a little, or check a safest route to get to where they need to get. These designs not only meets the necessity of school bike riders, but can also meet the necessity of the community.
Comments
You have no pictures, and your sketches should be under the Brainstorming tab. You need more sketches also.
Your tabs are confusing. You have a few things out of place. Pictures should be under Collecting Information and sketches should be under Brainstorming. I mentioned this on Monday. Please correct.