Metro Manila is heading towards a downwards spiral of having lesser and lesser options for transporting its people to their destinations. This project aims to develop a greater sense for the people, to its users to develop their sensibilities on how to efficiently and effectively make the city a more viable place to live in. It all starts with Culture.
The culture of the content in this development lies in its clear advocacy to develop and enrich the current scene of Bicycle Urbanism in the country. The bicycle therefore is utilized in foreign countries like Denmark, Germany, France as one of the best tools for urban mobility. The heavy influence of the automobile industry created a saturated mentality that cars should be used on all our journeys, creating pollution and further worsening life quality the people experience in the city.
The designer’s solution to this problem is creating a development wherein the world’s best practices on bicycle urbanism can experienced and people can develop a more sustainable culture towards advocating bicycle use in the city. An architectural x infrastructural solution combined to one.
The Philippines has not always been known to be a cycling country, but slowly it has been becoming a growing trend garnering a huge cult following in certain areas of Metro Manila like Pasay, Pasig, Marikina, Antipolo and Quezon City. According to Bambike President and founder, Brian McLelland the bicycle industry is growing twice a year in the Philippines, meaning there is a great potential to develop this kind of project of this typology.
Site Location:
The site location for the project is located in Brgy. Sta. Elena in Marikina. 150 meters from the Marikina City Hall and a prime spot for locating a bicycle-centered development in the city.
Cities like Pasig and Quezon city has been active lately in developing their cycling infrastructures on certain areas of their jurisdiction. But Marikina has been doing this since 1995 and now they have the longest bike lane network in the country that covers 90 kilometers out of 360 kilometers of their total road network. It is also where the site for PhilCycling Hub is to be located, right in the heart of Marikina City.
Project Goals and Purpose
The goal of this project is to mainly inspire the public on the use and potentials of the humble bicycle. As to there is a great calling to improve and change the mindset of the people, the masses on the use of the automobile and introduce them on the great effects of using bicycles in the city. An urban revolution as they say to make life better.
Spearheading the pursuit of creating this hub will create various major effects like:
• The rise of bicycle use in the city per capita
• An active venue for all types of cycling events and activities in the city
• Lessening the use of motor vehicles in the city
• Better environmental quality in the future
• A livelier, happy and fitter city
This project aims also to create a generation of people who rely less on automobiles and introduce the concept of cycling to the Filipino masses. The bicycle itself is one of the simplest yet effective forms of transportation on cities. Improving the cycling scene in the city what more in the country will solve a lot of transportation, social, economic, environmental, health and mental problems with this kind of development and advocacy. It aims to create a new way for people to see the city and remove the social exclusivity the cars bring.
The designer of this development in one of the many advocates who are fighting cycling rights on the road. Cycling developments cannot just be solved in singular ways, it takes a collective of innovative, open minded people who clamor for change in such a car-centric Metro Manila.
Project: Architecture x Infrastructure
As this is a bicycle-centered architectural project, it is to be networked by bike lanes as its infrastructure entity to make the experience seamless. It takes advantages of ramps and gradients as its major design feature for creating a whole new architectural experience for people not just in the context of cycling. From accessing and traversing the development, you can do it via bicycle.
Contribution to the Discipline of Architecture
PhilCycling Hub’s main goal is to advocate the use of bicycles in the city, in Metro Manila. This catalyst project will contribute greatly to the discipline of architecture in the country. Creating a catalyst development like this will create branches in the city creating hubs in each major region or city in the country. It bridges the gap between architecture and infrastructure in a way that makes it seamless on the human scale experience. You have the pavilion that shelters indoor cycling activities and you have the great outdoor spaces that are connected thru a network of infrastructure elements that seamlessly binds well with the connecting architectural entities.
Architecture should be able to affect its users and change their perspective on how they view life. Architecture has that capability that even it is very small in contrast with the urban plan and city it can drastically affect the way people behave, even see and dream their cities be better in the future.
This project aims to educate the people, make them experience architecture in a different way, inspire their minds, make advocates out of them and spread the things they learned in this development. A great way to cause change and create a disruption in the local scene of architecture that is saturated with car-centric design solutions. Architecture can sometimes be one of the great tools of cementing an idea, paired together with infrastructure element that takes the experience on a whole new level, with bicycles and smiles for miles.
5 Step Program
EDUCATE – Education is key to promote bicycle culture and it introduces the people on the potentials and capabilities of the bicycle in the city, therefore making people aware of the rising numbers of cyclists and etc.
EXPERIENCE – The best way to see the potential of cycling is to make the people experience it and see it for themselves, changing the way they see and fully understand it.
INSPIRE – Once you made the people experience the joy of riding the bicycle in a safe environment, you begin to inspire enough thought to make them become more open to the kind of lifestyle that can change the way people see the city and the courtesy also to other cyclists in the road.
BECOME ADVOCATES – After some time, you see the people joining grow more and more as they share the same thoughts and sentiments about cycling in the city. You have opened their minds and converted a citizen towards embracing an urbanism that incorporates cycling in the city
SPREAD – Cycling activities are often spread towards social media, and much often is thru word of mouth. Once you created advocates, the community spreads and grows much more, creating a network then soon a large demographic of bicycle users and advocates.
PhilCycling Hub: An Urban Catalyst for Bicycle Culture and Advocacy
Arvin B. Diamzon
University of Sto. Tomas
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