Unless you live in the Netherlands, Europe’s most bike-obsessed country, a bike garage is rarely aesthetically beautiful. The Hague has just opened one of the world’s largest bike parking garages, and it’s like entering into the hull of a spaceship. The garage, which has space for 8,000 bikes, is located beneath a plaza directly in front of the central station.
If you have a vision of a gloomy, concrete parking garage in your head, shake it. With white ceilings and backlit glass walls, as well as electronic smart directional indicators to indicate vacant areas, this structure is brilliant. It has the appearance of a future airport.
The remarkable light walls that make the area so light and modern use design aspects from aboveground urban environments, such as building facades.
“By carefully weaving together facade components of renowned buildings in The Hague, we have created a dazzling cityscape reminiscent to the works of Dutch graphic designer M.C. Escher,” Rene Toneman, Partner at creative agency SILO, told Lonely Planet. We were inspired by the sensation of racing through a metropolis at great speed. The buildings appear to merge into one continuous flow. A visit to a bicycle parking garage has never been more of a museum experience, with free admission!”
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