Re-Inventing the Bike Shed

This exhibition (RTBS) was catalysed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects, Blueprint Magazine and others and staged within the London Architectural Biennale. Under my curatorial direction RTBS was the first exhibition to review security and fitness for purpose of bicycle parking and storage solutions in the context of architecture and design and launched an international architectural design competition that I assessed (as judging panel member). I also devised an online consultation process with industry to gauge manufacturing interest in competition entries.

Bikeoff, a research initiative funded in part by AHRC ‘small grants’ funding, of which I am principal investigator, provided over 80% of the exhibition content, drawing systematically on results of both criminological and practice led research into bicycle theft specifically, visual documentation and analysis of existing cycle parking solutions and interventions. These are summarized in a journal article ‘Bike Off! Tracking the Design and Terrains of Cycle Parking’ (with Gamman 35% and Willcocks 30%) where my contribution focused on the identification of design implications for development of guidelines for design of secure cycle parking.

The exhibition featured data captured from users using a weblog, a novel method for researching cyclists’ experiences and opinions. It presented my research which analysed quantitative and qualitative police bicycle theft data, including mapping information, and systematic observational research of bike parking behaviour where I used bespoke recording systems to capture user data relevant to the design of secure cycle parking.
My findings have informed subsequent exhibitions and a cycle theft MO animation DVD “Know the Enemy” (with Gamman 33% and Bold Creative 33%) that has been widely disseminated to crime prevention practitioners. It has led to original design guidelines for cycle parking which have been taken up commercially. In 2006 I was awarded (as P.I.) £323,918 by the AHRC/EPSRC for further research in this area.