Cities love bike sharing. Since 2014, the number of shared bikes has doubled, climbing to more than 18 million shared bikes worldwide. While this is a net positive for building multi-modal cities, bike sharing isn’t without its complications. For instance: What happens to all the bikes when they get old? Or are simply abandoned?
If it’s up to designer Qiang Huang, the leftover parts will become raw material for furniture. The Central Saint Martins graduate recently created “Bike Scavengers”, a series of design objects that imagine how bike waste can be transformed into pieces of furniture. Using pieces salvaged from broken and abandoned bikes, Huang built a bench, stool, lamps, and a trolly that cleverly repurposes what would otherwise be trash.
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Look to her metal-framed bench that uses 36 recycled, interlocking saddles as a cushy seat. Or the trolly, which features bike baskets affixed to a wheeled metal frame. Huang made lamps built from curved mudguards and a stool that’s comprised of six saddles.
“At the heart of the project is a critique of the environmental detriment caused by bike-sharing schemes in their operations and unregulated growth in China,” she told Dezeen. “These products could not only be functional commodities but also provocative pieces reminding people how bike sharing affected us and in what way we could protect our living environment and future.”