I’ll participate with 2 posters for the two projects and a scale model, a fragment of a future city, in which the Kolelinio system will be integrated. You can see it here:

video coming…

Kolelinio, when flying into the city is not only science fiction…

We live in a strange world! Nowadays the technological achievements are great, but at the same time the means of conveyance evolve extremely slow. We drive vehicles that are about 20 times heavier than our bodies and we build expensive roads with heavy materials. We are all waiting to run out of petroleum and then to live in a cleaner world, but this won’t happen soon!
What if we change the streets in the city center with taut wires? What if our vehicles are compact enough to carry them with us as a bag?

Kolelinio is a concept for creating a completely new weightless layer for transportation on a higher level, based on steel wires and compact individual transportation electric devices. Kolelinio system is a low-cost solution, the individual backpack device has very simple construction and it consumes a little energy. The line changes heights based on the ground condition. For instance, in a dense traffic zone, the line is elevated quite high off the ground and it returns to the ground level after bypassing the crowded intersections.

Publications:

– WEB –

Archdaily
Gizmodo
Inhabitat
Wired
Fast Company

– MAGAZINES –

FreeLounge Germany

– EVENTS –

The project was officially presented at the TEDx conference in Thessaloniki

kolelinio project is under creative commons license (cc)

Video from the conference coming soon…
TEDxBG 2010 Official Photos

Is it possible to achieve a completely new level of transportation with minimum resources?
Kolelinia is a concept for riding our own bikes on a new type of bicycle-lanes, based on steel wires. It aims to create a new type of transportation experience, and to be installed using a minimal amount of resources.

The Kolelinia midair bike lanes consist of steel cables suspended above city streets at a maximum of 4.5 meters and over pedestrian zones at between 2.5 to 3 meters. Commuters’ bike tires are slotted into a steel furrow up to 14 cm deep and anchored to the two horizontal steel cables, with a third safety cable strung at about saddle height. The butt of one handlebar is also clipped to this third cable. Riders are clipped into the cable system via a special mechanism and a safety harness. The system is not intended to replace ordinary biking, only to relieve congested zones. Of course it is too early to talk about mass use. At the beginning it could be a special designed adventure line or a touristic line in the city.

We are born to move and this makes us alive. Transport is not just transport, it has to be an experience. The quality of this process reflects directly on the quality of our life.

Publications:

– WEB –

Archdaily
Gizmodo
Inhabitat
Swiss Miss
Wired
Anarchitecture
Architizer – featured project
Fast Company
Gizmag
prollyisnotprobably.com
Ecoist
current.com
theawesomer.com
vectroave.com
greenz.jp

– BOOKS –

Velo: Bicycle Culture and Design – Gestalten Germany
Green Ideas – Weigl Publishers USA
Urban objects, Living differently in the city – Sophie Barbaux France

– MAGAZINES –

Ecologik France
Indesign Australia
Marie Claire Italy
Vélo Mag Canada
Cooyon Japan
FreeLounge Germany

– EVENTS –

The project Kolelinia was officially presented at the TEDx conference in Sofia

kolelinia project is under creative commons license (cc)

The line, something simple and at the same time powerful.

It can be border and can divide things…

…it can be connection.

Just such a connection is the LOB. It connects on a higher level with minimum of mass and resources. Four lines, two directions, one bicycle lane.

Before I go in details I want to separate two categories for the possible applications. The first one solves city transportation problems and the second one refers to tourism entertainment and sports.

Let’s begin with the first category. LOB can be a particular bridge. One single segment can pass over a problematic or high-traffic zone, being quite independent of it.

Another obstacle which can be overpassed with the help of LOB are the channels or rivers in urban areas.

The second category is tourism. Special routes can be constructed which pass between remarcable sights of the towns. In this way the tourist can see the town from quite different point of view.

These tourist’s bike lines can also pass over ancient ruins – an opportunity to see the past from above.

LOB can be extreme sport for those who are looking for high adrenaline.

At the end I want to mention that LOB can be experimental installation. For instance it can be a pavilion for the Olympic games or an EXPO, or even for advertising.

And now a more detailed look on the system. The bike moves in a special furrow. It’s stabilized by a security rim, which doesn’t allow the to bend to the left and to the right. The bicyclist fixes the rim to the pipe of the seat by a special locking mechanism. The security belts are fixed on the rim, they can be 2 or 4. There is a system with a spring, which absorbs the dynamic tensions. At the top there is a roller, which is attached to the stabilizing cable.

This is the detail of the furrow in which the wheel moves. Two stretched cables, covered with a flexible material.

I was looking for photos of bicyclists in the Internet and what was my surprise when on the photo I recognized who else but the American President Obama. So, the first word which came to my mind was – CHANGE, which in fact could be a good motto of my project. People need symbols, which to provoke them and make them believe that always there is an alternative in life.

Please secure your bike, fasten your seat belts and prepare to ­fly…

The finalists

1. George Dimov (ACO) 2. Animish Kudalkar (Finalist) 3. Neven Sidor (Judge) 4. Edward Jones (Chair Judge) 5. Amanda Baillieu (Building Design) 6. Ian Pieterse (Finalist) 7. Anna Grancharova (ACO) 8. Dirk Krolikowski (Judge) 9. Wolf Mangelsdorf (Judge) 10. Matthew Wells (Judge) 11. Martin Angelov (Finalist) 12. David Adar (Finalist) 13. Richard James (Finalist) 14. Stewart Kearney (Finalist) 15. Alastair Parvin (Finalist) 16. Peter Ridgway (ACO, Sponsor)

Everything started in the summer of 2008. I decided to participate in the international architectural competition „Line of Site” on the „City Transportation Interchange” brief. The first crazy idea which came to my mind was to make flying bicycle-lanes, using steel wire, something like ski lift but working on the opposite principle in which the wire is static and it doesn’t need electricity. Ultimately I sent only a pencil sketch and the idea placed for the final, which was held on February 2009 in London.