Have Parkcycle, Will Travel!

Ever wish your nearby park could follow you throughout the city, providing open space wherever you might be? An artist and landscape architect have created Parkcycle Swarm, a modular system of 'human powered mobile gardens'.

1 minute read

September 2, 2013, 7:00 AM PDT

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


An image of a parkcycle on the street

Affinity / Flickr

"What if communities formed new parks when they needed them? What if these parks could be formed by swarms of bicycles? If that sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel, get ready because landscape architect John Bela, ASLA, at Rebar and artist Tim Wolfer at N55 have created Parkcycle Swarm," writes Jared Green. 

"San Francisco-based urban design and art firm Rebar first tested the Parkcycle concept for one of its famed Park(ing) Days," he explains. "They describe the system as a 'human-powered open space distribution system designed for agile movement within the existing auto-centric urban infrastructure.'” 

"N55, a Copenhagen-based public art group, sees each unit as modules in a broader system. 'The Parkcycle Swarm can be seen as a DIY urban planning tool that is as an alternative to the top down urban planning that dominates most cities in the world.'" 

Wednesday, August 28, 2013 in THE DIRT

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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