Transforming ex-bike-shares into mobile ‘insect’ libraries.

China has a problem with excess bike-share bicycles.

So what to do with all the bicycles mounting up in bike-share graveyards?

The team at LUO Studio have come up with a very innovative solution.

Their answer is a gorgeous winged beetle-shaped mobile library called Share Lady Beetle that uses retired bike-share bicycles as the frame.

Brilliant!

Transforming ex-bike-shares into mobile ‘insect’ libraries.

This project has it all: bicycles, creativity, recycling, books, education and community.

According to Luo Yujie* the Shared Lady Beetle was created after talking to a friend who teaches young children and was lamenting the regular need to have on hand interesting literacy and educational materials to help engage young students.

What better way to engage young curious minds that with this beautifully designed mobile art bike library?

LUO Studio’s website describes the art bike as being ‘A mirco movable library for kids’ and details more information about the project including:

• A Reflection on “Sharing”
• A Mobile Maker Classroom for Children
• A Mirco Shared library
• Shared Lady Beetle in an unknown city

The analogy given of the Shared Lady Beetle is that it is a “beneficial insect walking on the urban leaf.”

How is it made?

The mobile library was made using a standard retired bike-share bicycle which still has it’s two back wheels, to which an additional load-bearing wheel is added to help distribute the weight and extra length of the beetle design.

Reclaimed light-weight metal sheeting and bodywork from cars was used to make the wings and exterior exoskeleton.

The moveable wings are hinged so they can open. Inside, there are three separate levels of shelves that can hold rows of books or educational resources like paper and pens, as well as art and crafts or other materials.

The studio says they are “committed to creating more durable, friendly and quality space through creative thinking, craftsmanship spirit of devotion and caring for nature.”

Projects like these are so important in providing inspiration for creative and innovative recycling ideas for unused bicycles.

Not only is this design aesthetically beautiful and incredibly functional, it is also a prime example of how skilled upcycling (of bicycles) can be integrated into our daily moments in a way that positions bicycles as being a normal, accepted and expected part of our everyday life.

Designs such as the Shared Lady Beetle are important in helping to shift long-held traditional views that bicycles are only used (or good for) for riding and that ‘biking is unsafe’. It is projects like this one that turn such flawed logic on its head.

What a wonderful gift this art bike would be for any school or community.

I hope to see more recycled bicycle/education fusions like this in the future.

Ride and read on Lady Beetle!

* Luo Yujie is the founder of LUO Studio and Director of the Sustainable Village Studio of China New Rural Planning and Design Institute. See more of LUO Studio’s work on their website which has project descriptions in Chinese and English.

All images from Colossal.