It’s not surprising that in a country filled with millions of individuals who prefer getting from A to B via foot or bicycle, that they’d develop an innovative solution for parking bicycles.

Giken Engineering Group, a company that develops projects based on their “Five Construction Principles”, including environmental protection, safety, speed, economy and aesthetics, are a step ahead in sustainable, practical and visually pleasing architecture.

Their parking garages are impressive in themselves, but even the idea of underground bicycle parking is a clever solution to the growing number of cyclists looking to part their ride throughout the day.

Eco-cycle is Giken’s “underground automatic bicycle parking system.” Using their ideas and criteria that they developed for their car parking developments, they began to explore an (obvious) solution to troublesome parking for cyclists.

Their construction is well-designed and ridiculously logical, and Giken devotes themselves to adhering to seven principles:

Door to Door Location: a parking location at every destination. (Ambitious, but useful).

Minimum Land Occupation: above ground parking takes up space, so designs are based on using as little space as possible.

Cost Saving: both the parking machine and construction are to be minimal, as well as daily running costs.

Use of their Five Construction Principles: environmental protection, safety, speed, economy and aesthetics

Safety for People and Security for Cars/Bikes: including theft, vandalism, natural disasters, and safety of drivers, passengers, and passers-by

Quick, Easy Parking: both drop-off and pick-up are done with ease

Cultural Function including Aesthetic Appeal: matching surroundings where its located

When Giken says “minimum land occupation”, they aren’t exaggerating. Each parking system is only 7 metres in diameter, and can store 144 bikes, holding up by theft and earthquakes. They understand that people are often in a hurry – these days, who isn’t? – but worry not: the automatic bicycle delivery that it includes takes about 10 seconds per bicycle, so even if a few people arrive at the same time, you’ll wait less than a minute.

Only taking 50 days to complete, and they ensure a tidy operation using minimal workspace, its hard to see why these wouldn’t be cropping up left and right.

Taking a cue from our Eastern friends, we’re terribly behind. I’d love to retire my bike lock, not have to remove my wheel, and pray that when I return to my bike, it’s still there.

But for now, I’ll just have to seek out an unoccupied, rusty bike rack.

Images courtesy of Giken.com

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