Bike Pavilion

The German city of Mainz has recently developed a trend towards being a more ‘bike-friendly’ city. But the city faced a problem of a shortage of suitable parking spaces for privately-owned bicycles.

Against this backdrop, SYRA Schoyerer Architekten developed a prototype for a bicycle pavilion for the city. True to their philosophy of rewriting the everyday, the design for the pavilion was based exclusively on industrially prefabricated mass-produced products. Only one small concession to special construction was made - the flat steel facade bars have a 90-degree twist, creating a slightly more open facade than a series of flat bars would offer.

With the help of a simple design and standardized elements, a sturdy pavilion has been conceived with concise, yet restrained, architecture that protects a carousel for up to twelve bicycles from the weather, vandalism and theft.

The entire hot dip galvanized steel pavilion was completely assembled in the factory and transported to site as a finished structure. This prototype has provided a new vision for the city that will act as a spur for its use as well as inspiration for similar structures.