Bicycle Rack Yields Design for Modular Home

Zahid Sardar, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, June 21, 2009

Prefabricated houses have long intrigued Modernist architects and, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina when some homes simply floated away, many philanthropic Bay Area organizations such as Habitat for Humanity have encouraged architects to think of easy-to-assemble, affordable buildings.

Now Palo Alto architect Joseph Bellomo has concocted the House Arc, a modular building that started out as a semi-circular bicycle shelter and bike rack.

Built over concrete piers or a wood deck, the tubular steel armature of the House Arc is sheathed in translucent polycarbonate plastic coated with a solar film to power light`bulbs and home appliances.

If Bellomo's green-conscious permanent tent gets produced, it will cost about $100,000 for 800 square feet of space.

"The component arcs could be made of lightweight carbon fiber to make them easy to transport," he said.

The idea grew from a project that began three years ago, when Jeff Selzer, general manager of Palo Alto Bicycles and a board member of Bikestation, a national chain of garages for commuter bicycles, approached Bellomo to design Bikestation's Palo Alto branch. Bellomo suggested a better bicycle rack.

Nine months ago, he and Selzer unveiled the rack prototype under the aegis of their new company, Bike Arc.

Their timing is apt. Gas-conscious commuters have thrust the bicycle into the limelight.

"Bicycling is recession-proof. I see that even older people are beginning to use bicycles," Bellomo said. "Their bicycles are the new Lexus. I even ride my bicycle to work every day."

But then where do you park it?

Bellomo, whose firm has become the area's expert on transit hubs after it designed the award-winning High/Alma parking garage in downtown Palo Alto, felt that bicycles also ought to have fine shelters.

"I wanted bikes to have the same cachet and respect as expensive cars," Bellomo said. "I was tired of seeing them tangled together in makeshift racks."

He created Tube Arc, a modular bike storage bin with doors that lock. From inside, its tubular steel ribs and polycarbonate sheathing look like the belly of a translucent whale. And, because it is modular, Tube can be expanded to house hundreds of bicycles in neat rows.

"That's when I thought we could develop this design into a system of rooms to live in," Bellomo said.

A Half Arc segment of the prototype installed at University Circle in Palo Alto in March demonstrates how a few custom parts can be quickly assembled to form a lightweight shelter.

"We use steel in the lightest way possible in our buildings and we used the same thinking here. Less steel means less cost and less handling. We don't over-engineer it," Bellomo said.

Bellomo then developed Rac Arc by using the basic curved component of the lightweight Tube. His quarter-circle rack made of flat 1/4 x 3-inch galvanized steel strips can store bikes tilted up, locked in place at a 45-degree angle.

"A 10-year-old child can use this rack," Bellomo said. "You just roll the bike in, hook it and secure it with a U-lock or chain."

On sidewalks, because its curved shape can cantilever over adjoining landscaping, Rac Arc takes less room than conventional bike racks. Inquiries about the product are coming in from Redwood City; Long Beach wants 60 Half Arcs; and the city of Palo Alto recently approved eight Half Arcs for Lytton Plaza to be partially funded by private donors.

Spurred by such interest, Bellomo's office unleashed other Bike Arc designs that could be produced: Car Arc, a carport shelter that protects bikes as well as cars, has a polycarbonate roof with solar collectors to power electric bicycles or cars; Bus Arc, which also has a translucent solar roof, bike racks, a bench and a socket to power laptops for commuters waiting for a bus. The Umbrella Arc, which is composed of eight C-shaped arcs back-to-back to store eight bicycles in less than 25 square feet of space, is already available.

And then, after this flood of ideas, came Bellomo's House Arc.