Books and Bikes

Uniting the intellectual and the physical, this project disrupts the traditionally cerebral library with the physical body of the cyclist.

The bike-library hybrid spatializes the information highway: the constant, rapid circulation of ideas is echoed by that of people and bicycles. Not only is food for thought provided, but also a physical workout.

In connecting the existing network of cycling paths in Manhattan and Queens, cycling requirements (ramps, turning radii) negotiate with library floor plates, producing a landform building that connects to the ground, rejecting the status of a monument. The new city library is a landscape for movement — of ideas and bodies — instead of a static object for storage.