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This is the parking for 7,000 bicycles that is underwater in Amsterdam

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This is the parking for 7,000 bicycles that is underwater in Amsterdam

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An engineering work worthy of study that, among other things, has forced the emptying of a lake to pump the water back once the works are finished.

This is the parking for 7,000 bicycles that is under water in Amsterdam, an engineering work worthy of study that, among other things, has forced the emptying of a lake to pump the water back once the works are finished. The objective is to solve the problem, from the urban point of view, of the volume of bicycles that are distributed throughout the city. According to municipal statistics there are some 900,000 bicycles for a population of 882,000 inhabitants.

Around the square of the central railway station, a huge number of bicycles accumulate. This is one of the most crowded areas for bikes, but it is not the only one in the city. To provide a solution to so many bicycles, this underground car park has been inaugurated in front of the emblematic red brick building from the 19th century, a building considered a national monument. We corrected, underwater. Yes, underwater.

And it is that if you study the central train station in Amsterdam you will realize that it is built on three artificial islands. In the city it is easy to find sand, and if you dig deep enough, water emerges. “If you lift a tile off the ground in the Netherlands you will see sand. If you take away four, it looks like a beach. If you dig a little, water emerges in many places because its water table is very high,” said Oriol Casas Cancer, the Spanish architect in charge of the project, in an interview with El País.

According to the same account, the objective was “to amplify the effect of the water, protect the building without obstacles and restore space to pedestrians”. And the way of working that they had to implement was amazing. Although, the same account that 21,000 cubic meters of concrete and 3,300 tons of reinforced iron were used. A project that initially required work to be done “under the water with the help of divers, at the height of the place where the bicycle parking lot was to be built.”

“There is a central avenue of columns that are in the shape of an inverted drop, and have red, amber or green lights to indicate where there is a free space. In the most artistic part, I sought the collaboration of the Amsterdam Historical Museum to introduce the memory of water in relation to the city”, points out the Spanish architect. “With the help of an algorithm, we then select works of art from the museum related to water.”

Parking is free for the first 24 hours. After spending a day it costs 1.35 euros per day. It cannot be left as a deposit, yes. All a majestic work of engineering that is fascinating to know.

Source – The Country

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