Architectural historian and urban planner Steven Fleming is expanding the study of cities and mobility by looking at how designers are reacting to bicycling and how bicycles are set to transform the way cities work.
In this Q&A, Bike Portland talks with Fleming about the connections between bicycling and architecture, and a new book that's in the works.
"Your book's working title, and your term for this new field is "Cycle Space." What exactly is that?
'There are different ways to see cities. If you're a cyclist, you might not know the names of some of the roads, you might not know certain landmarks. If you're a driver though, you don't know the landmarks by which the cyclist navigates and maps out the city in their head... And now we've got this fantastic explosion in bike share in a pretty short period of time and a huge bike culture has grown up around that. We're living in this time when those of us who have been cycling for a long time and seeing the world through those eyes, I think we've got something to offer. People are going to begin to ask us what we know.
We talk about hegemonies in architecture. The car domination is the typical hegemony. But thankfully, we live in this post-modernist age when smaller voices all have a part as well. And even if cyclists only ever make up 10% of the transport share, our voices deserve to be heard and we've got a way of seeing the world that is valid.'"
FULL STORY: Interview: Bikes, architecture, and "Cycle Space" with Steven Fleming
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