Charybdis is a bike transit system that uses the quintessential form of a bike to suggest a building form derived of and created by the object it seeks to house.
An exercise involving paper plates, plastic cups and zip ties began an investigation into computational design. Paper plates were rolled into cones and cut to fit into each other to form two systems: a three armed and four armed unit. Both units aggregate into larger crystalline structures and a hybrid of the two provides new formal opportunities.
In Philadelphia, a new business park requires a bike transit structure to connect a growing public transport system and bike share program. A series of interconnected bike stations are situated across the city. This outlier is meant to be a hub in a remote but growing neighborhood.
Using the paper plate experiments as inspiration, reused bikes and, more specifically, the reused bike form spawned a structural system that would at some points be made of independent building elements and at others be a system made of cast aside bikes that would act as storage for their in-use cousins. In addition, urban forces mapped onto the site, visiting bikes, buses and patrons a sort of Charybdis. This swirl became the regulating lines for the final structure.