WARNING: This is not a bicycle rack. It shall not be used as a bicycle rack. Should this non-rack prove too accommodating for a cyclist, security shall abruptly intervene.
As a generous gesture to his client, Jonathan Scharer, a local sign maker, rides his bicycle to the Georgia-Pacific building in Atlanta to hand deliver a custom sign. Jonathan parks his bike, locking it tight and secure to this bicycle-rack-like structure. With a smile on his face and the wind at his back he shuffles his feet to the building entrance where he is met with the aggressive, unhappy face of Georgia Pacific security. The nature of the meeting is unpleasant, Jonathan has broken the one very important rule of the GP bicycle non-rack.
Jonathan is told, by a hefty number of security guards now accumulating at the scene, that his bicycle is not welcome.
“Design thinking“ is a way of talking about what designers can contribute to areas beyond the domains in which they have traditionally worked, about how they can improve the tasks of structuring interactions, organizations, strategies, etc. This bicycle-rack-like-but-most-definitely-not-to-be-used-as-a-bicycle-rack structure is in need of applied ”design thinking”.
Even Oprah has acknowledged that our country is entering a new era, the Conceptual Age. An era when design thinkers will rule. Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind states that design thinkers possess the ability to create something that has significance as well as usefulness. Will the purpose of the bicycle-rack-like structure at Georgia-Pacific survive in the Conceptual Age? Let’s answer a few questions to gauge the usefulness and significance of this bicycle-rack-like-but-most-definitely-not-to-be-used-as-a-bicycle-rack structure.
1. Does it provide us a service we didn’t know we needed, but can’t live with out?
2. What is the purpose for it, and does that purpose exceed the cost?
3. Does it invite, and draw attention to the entrance or focal-point of the space?
(Take a moment to consider your answer)
Transportation and urban planning are quickly moving into the Conceptual Age. Design thinkers are repurposing public space in urban areas realizing that if you build for community and growth that’s what you get. In New York City, streets have been redesigned for public domain. California wants to move people and products across the state with high-speed trains linking every city. And cycling culture is growing in American cities, that will soon rival Copenhagen and Amsterdam.
Though this bicycle-rack-like structure is found near the entrance of the building (where one may expect to find an actual bicycle-rack) its purpose is unknown. Design thinking says let’s put it to use. We can promote cycling in Atlanta, add to the public domain and, if nothing else, help relive some of the grief that comes with being a security guard.
I learned that lesson a long time ago. You just have to lock to the bike rack that looks like a trash can on the corner, though I’ve had security for downtown businesses threaten to cut locks on even those.
Comment by skip on July 20, 2009 at 12:08 am
The best thing about this story is that the woman Jonathan was delivering the sign to was watching the security guards give him trouble, but she didn’t do or say anything to help out.
Comment by Mick on July 20, 2009 at 2:05 pm