Cycling Visionaries Awards - Project Details

Bicycle Innovation Lab

Bicycle Innovation Lab is a national and international house of cycling culture situated in Copenhagen. We facilitate lectures, events (see link), workshops and exhibitions with the bicycle and bicycle traffic as the focal point. Bicycle Innovation Lab works to highlight the developing potential of bicycle culture across disciplines.

Bicycle Innovation Lab is located in Copenhagen, which is also the frame of reference in most of our work. The eyes of the world are currently fixed on Copenhagen as one of the great international pioneering cities of bicycles. Few cities in the world approach the same widespread use of the bicycle as here. Almost all Copenhageners own a bike, and the distinctive cycling culture is one of the city's strongest brands.
The city is constantly evolving and studies even suggest that the bicycle rates in Copenhagen have stagnated. Targeted action is thus still needed to ensure that cycling culture has the necessary conditions to continue its development with the city. This need for action is at the heart of Bicycle Innovation Lab's work. We work to support, develop and convey the unique cycling culture of Copenhagen. That is why we call Copenhagen our laboratory. As a knowledge center for cyclism, it is our ambition to help Copenhagen become the world's leading cycling city - an international benchmark for innovative solutions that support cycling in the city.

Bicycle Innovation Lab consist of three parts; the knowledge center, the bicycle library and the workshop. Bicycle Innovation Lab strives to be a culture house with plenty of room for development and testing of new bicycle concepts and ways to use the bike.

In the knowledge center, we work on multiple platforms with the dissemination and development of urban cycling culture. We organize lectures and guided tours, make infographics, (See picture) video productions (see links: http://www.bicycleinnovationlab.dk/knowledge-center/videotheque?l=uk). We have created an international travelling exhibition “The Good City” (see link: http://www.bicycleinnovationlab.dk/knowledge-center/the-good-city?l=uk) with 18 contributors from Denmark and Europe. Bicycle Innovation Lab's intention with The Good City is to deliver the inspiration and framework for a solution oriented debate on the bicycle's future role in the city. The aim of the travelling exhibition is to increase the knowledge of and raise the level of the debate on cycling and cycling culture. The Good City showcases the plethora of possibilities inherent in cycling as a platform for change towards better cities with less congestion and better living spaces.

A one to one way Bicycle Innovation Lab supports cycling in the city, is through our bicycle library (see link: http://www.bicycleinnovationlab.dk/bicycle-library?l=uk), which is driven by volunteers. The basic idea behind the bicycle library is that everyone should have the opportunity to test drive a wide range of bicycle types. At Bicycle Innovation Lab, we believe that the more different bikes you've tried, the greater is the chance that you will find just the bike that best suits your individual transportation needs. From our research we can see that in fact a bicycle library reduces the use of motorized vehicles. We are always curious about new and different bicycles and constantly work to expand our collection. We strive to have as varied and as large a selection of bicycles as possible.

The workshop works in two ways. We facilitate workshops that generate new innovative ideas and projects. (See film Hackevent at IT University link: https://vimeo.com/55968315). Much of the innovation and changes in bicycle transport behavior are created from scratch. They arise through the experience of limits and new ideas that become con­crete needs to be met. Secondarily we have a physical bike building/ educating workshop which is located, along with the bicycle library, in our shipping containers. The workshop has five workstations equipped with lifts, tools, power outlets and the possibility of prototype storage. Here the prototypes are built.

Read more about Bicycle Innovation Lab at our homepage (see link: http://www.bicycleinnovationlab.dk/)