Dhhs bike shelters

Bicycle Enclosure and Visitor Parking_Carlton VIC Australia _Completed 2013

Following the success of the DHS Cafe/Milk Bar, BENT Architecture was commissioned by the Department of Human Services to design bike shelters in the undercroft of two public housing towers in Carlton.  

Conceived as a dynamic reinterpretation of the humble, cyclone-mesh bike shed, the DHS Bike Shelters celebrate the environmental and health benefits of bike use by creating a vibrant and engaging spaces for bike storage.  The framework of the bike shelters weave in and out of the pilotis of the existing towers, defining space within and beyond the sites. The powdercoated steel piping of the shelters fragment and morph to become racks for visitor parking, while alternating coloured pavement patches demarcate individual parking bays.  Playful graphics have been lasercut into powdercoated steel bracing for signage and way finding.  The transparency of the towers' undercrofts have been retained to enhance surveillance and safety whilst maintaining the spirit of the existing buildings, 

In reinvigorating otherwise dormant, underutilised spaces, the DHS Bike Shelters have become  vibrant community hubs, physically and socially connected to adjacent bike paths and surrounding parkland.  

BENT Team:
Paul Porjazoski, Fiona Lew, Merran Porjazoski

Builder:
Guardian Fencing P/L

Structural Engineer:
Clive Steele Partners P/L

Photography:
Folded Bird Photography