The Life-Sized City Blog

It's not just about bicycles as transport. The city needs lots of important things. More colour. More citizen interaction. More cinemas, for example. So Felix and I decided to do something about it. There was the perfect little hole in the wall across the street from us, in a doorway. Last December, we decided that a bit of urban infill would be just the ticket. We agreed that we needed a cinema closer to home. We measured the hole and went home to build our Lego Cinema, returning to glue it in place. The kid taking the city back. Because we can. I recalled that a few years ago the Danish Architecture Center (I think) put up tables on City Hall Square along with a fantastic amount of white Lego bricks. Passersby stopped up and built whatever their heart desired. The Felix and I spent a good couple of hours there. Continuing on the LEGO theme, Felix and I made this chess set five years ago. We still have it and use it.

It's rare that I have cash in my pockets as everything is debit cards here - from a pack of gum to you name it. But a had a 200 kroner note the other day and it surprised me to see that it's a new design! That's how rare I see cash. Anyway, it's of Knippels Bridge over the harbour and, right there on the money, is a bike lane. To the left of the sidewalk. It's seperated up to the bridge and on the other side but over the bridge it's a painted line. It's very wide and features about 20,000 cyclists a day. Now I'm sure the artist was focusing on the tower that controls the drawbridge and the spires of the city in the background, but I'm also sure that it's the first time bicycle infrastructure has featured on national currency. :-)

We've written about parking zones before. The City of Copenhagen has been testing painted zones in order to help people park a little less chaotic. It was tested in Amsterdam as well, and in both cities it seemed to work quite well. My friend Michiel from the Dutch Fietsersbond (Cycling Union) sent me the above film about a Dutch artist, Roosmarijn Vergouw, who created sculptures of parked bicycles using only tape and, in the process, discovered that people will park in the zones when they're there. She calls it Fietsenzwermen - Bicycle Swarm (I'm guessing). It's amazing to see how disciplined the cyclists became when there was tape on the ground. Vergouw now has an idea to do a similar project using spotlights. The City of Amsterdam's Bicycle Office is interested in hearing more. Here's a Dutch-language article about it in the Fietsersbond's magazine - opens as a .pdf .

Photo by Marie. You see this truck quite often around Copenhagen. It's from the Københavns Cykelbørs - Copenhagen Bicycle Exchange - who rent bicycles to tourists as well as selling bicycles and doing repairs. The truck transport the bikes around to various locations where and if they're needed. The text on the artwork " Det er et yndigt land... " is the opening lyrics to the national anthem and translated it works out as: "It is a lovely country..." To hear what the national anthem sounds like when sung by 42,000 men, women and children at a national football match, click here . There is a lovely land with broad, shady beeches Near salty Baltic beaches Its hills and valleys rise and fall its ancient name is Denmark, And it is Freya's hall This land is still as fair, the sea is blue around it, And peace is cherished there Strong men and noble women still uphold their country's honour With faithfulness and skill Anyway, there have been various owners...