In dense and compact European cities, promoting cycling is a key strategy for sustainable mobility, climate adaptation and public health and constitutes a critical component of contemporary mobility policies. However, cycling infrastructures is still too often conceived purely in technical terms, despite its spatial and architectural potential. This contribution examines bicycle parking facilities conceived as urban devices at the intersection of mobility infrastructure and educational space, paying particular attention to their role in serving schools.
Exploring recent European case studies – from modular timber shelters in Copenhagen to multi-level underground hubs in Utrecht – the abstract investigates design’s role in transforming these facilities into civic nodes bridging mobility and education. The shape of these bike parking systems addresses multiple challenges: safeguarding young users, enhancing multimodal connections, revitalising underused or leftover areas and integrating green infrastructure for microclimate mitigation.
The abstract argues that, rather than marginal additions, bicycle parking for schools must be understood as spatial devices that, when embedded within the architecture of learning environments, extend beyond the school boundaries to operate as infrastructural components of the city’s mobility networks. Interpreted architecturally, these projects emerge as passages in both the physical and social sense: transitional environments that choreograph flows, enable encounter and embed slow mobility within the public realm. Drawing on Ward’s observation that “the city is the greatest social laboratory available to children” (1978), the text suggests that everyday infrastructures can be reframed as formative passages that interweave mobility, public space and educational experience. The contribution explores the redefinition of mobility-related micro-infrastructures as essential components in enhancing community well-being and fostering social equity.
Bibliography
- Gehl, J. (2010). Cities for people. Washington, DC: Island Press.
- Pileri P., Renzoni C., Savoldi P. (2022). School Squares. Reinventing the Dialogue Between School and City. Milano: Corraini.
- Ward, C. (1978). The child in the city. London: The Architectural Press.
