Swedish Apartment Building Prioritizes Bikes Over Cars

From investing in bike highways to appointing the world’s first bike mayor, Northern Europe has found some pretty creative ways to encourage citizens to ditch their cars for two wheels. As FastCo.Exist reports, the latest cycling-centric innovation from the region is an apartment building in Sweden that’s been designed with bikers in mind.

Cykelhuset, or “bicycle house,” has seven stories' worth of bike-friendly spaces. The building lacks a parking garage—a design choice the architects at Hauschild + Siegel have compensated for with ample square footage elsewhere. Elevators are extra-wide with doors at both ends so riders never have to awkwardly turn their bikes around to exit. The apartments themselves are roomy enough for bikes to roll into and out of with ease. If residents want to park bikes outside of their apartment, they can either store them in the bike garage downstairs or in the spaces in front of each door.

Biking offers a lot of benefits over driving, but one major drawback is the lack of cargo space. Cykelhuset provides a solution to this problem in the form of a fleet of “cargo bikes” located on site. The bikes are designed to transport heavy loads like groceries, and can even be used to cart around child-sized passengers. For anyone who wishes to avoid going out to shop all together, the building also includes oversized delivery mailboxes for accepting and returning online orders.

After construction is completed, the building is set to open its doors in December of this year. Signing a lease won’t be the only way to take advantage of the bike-friendly amenities: Cykelhuset is leaving 31 lofts on its first floor available for visitors to book by the night. Instead of renting a car at the nearby train station, guests will be able to rent a bike from Cykelhuset. For a peek inside, check out the short film below.

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