Gravity Rises

BMX Bike Factory

abstract:

BMX has seen an increasing popularity in New York city in recent years. But the production facility of this sport is still distant from the players. There could have been better engagement between the sport as culture and sport as commercial activity. Our factory is proposing a new business model that integrates ’4P’: Production, Promotion, Performance and Publicity, with the architecture being the brand for its production.  It invites local player to join in the development of customized bikes by providing public space in the factory courtyards, where both designing and production are happening along the continuous slope surfaces.

Studio: Lise Anne Couture
GSAPP Fall 2016
Partner: Ruizhi Wang

The aged industrial zone at the Newtown Creek separate Queens and Brooklyn, but it also separates the local residence from the water front. But separation will not stop BMX biker who defines their own  boundary as they use their body to map the urban environment.

Three production lines

The current production mode for BMX bikes involve displaced producers. Many parts are made in different factories to maximize production efficiency. Our design questions if that mode is the most efficient for the design cycle, a cycle involves highly customized parts for each individual customers.

To resolve such problem, all three production lines are located under the same roof: body frame, rubber tyre and wheel frame.

A typical bike factory is studied to analyze the spatial requirement of the industrial interior. Particular attention was paid to the machine types: how are they occupying the space and how are they transporting the intermediate materials.

Rethinking the Typology

The site sits at the border of Brooklyn and Queens borough, between a large residential area and an aged industrial zone. To revitalize the large scale industrial urban-scape while providing new public water front for the residence, the BMX factory position itself as large urban landscape that invite public to come closer to the production.

Unlike typical bike factory where all assembly lines are placed parallel to each other for maximum cost-efficiency, we redesign the factory typology in a centralized layout where the designers, workers and players are all closer connected for maximum design-efficiency because BMX bike have been a very customization-drive products.

Architecture as a Brand.

The design of the factory is the branding for the company. The continuity attracts BMX biker to play on roof top, on wall space, on stairs and ramps, on every possible surface more than flat floors. The absence of corner and end point on the urban integration reflect the very culture the factory is designing and producing.

Plans

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