Paper short abstract:

This project explores how Bicycle Kitchens facilitates sustainable mobility practices. We explored how participants in BK’s can be activated to adapt current structures to practices around repair that focus on less use and reuse of materials and propagate BK’s as a tool for mobility transformation.

Paper long abstract:

Cycling in the Netherlands has a waste problem. Orphaned bikes are an example of how a high-cycling society doesn’t guarantee a sustainable transportation system. Twenty percent of Dutch public bike parking garages are filled with orphaned bikes (MVW, 2008). As repair and maintenance work is not always feasible for all users, complementing product use with service, also called Product Service Systems (PSS), can play an important role in making repair and maintenance feasible. The Bike Kitchen (TBK) Amsterdam, initiated in September 2023, is an example of a PSS and aims to professionally support users in repairing and maintaining their own bikes to extend the life of the bicycle.

This project explores the way bicycle kitchens could facilitate sustainable mobility practices in a community. By being hosts, each for one day a week, the first authors used design ethnography – a form of action research – to explore how participants in TBK can be activated to (1) adapt and broaden current structures and procedures to practices around repair that focus on reduced use and reuse of materials, and (2) propagate TBK as a tool for mobility transformation (Bradley, 2018).

We tested Proto-Practices (Kuijer 2017) of recruiting and distributing explicit roles, i.e. passer-by, participant, host and mechanic, and inviting participants for structural consultations to arrive at actual action towards an improved Bike Kitchen design. In this talk, we illustrate the importance of reciprocal collaboration from different roles in implementing new social practices in the daily lives of TBK participants.