GIKEN ~ Great Japanese Eco-Construction Toolco

Japanese eco-construction tools company GIKEN supplies some of the most innovative equipment and enables truly remarkable urban and infrastructural designs! I first came to know of GIKEN because of their fantastic ECO Cycle robotic underground bicycle storage system, which I've written about in Bicycle Parking, More Robotic Storage, and Tokyo Bike Tower. The core of the GIKEN suite of solutions is the Silent Piler which uses the "Press-In Method" of inserting pilings underground for a variety of construction purposes. Here's an example Silent Piler in action... And here a great demo of vibration-free operations! Check out their GIKEN 'Tube channel for more goodies! This innovative company out of Japan is a great example urban venture!

Giken ECO Cycle ~ Japanese Robo Underparks!

Thanks to OddityCentral for spotlighting Danny Choo's latest video of Underground Bicycle Parking Systems in Japan, the ECO Cycle by Giken Seisakusho... Inhabitat's Lidija Grozdanic shares some of the inner workings... What makes Giken so interesting as a company is their enabling technology, harnessing the Press-In Method, for quiet and low environmental-impact construction.

Tokyo Bike Tower ~ Inside Robo-Storage System!

Every metro area needs hundreds of bicycle robo-storage solutions! Pioneering manufacturers include GIKEN, the Japanese construction solutions company. When you combine this fast storage and retrieval functionality with apps on pervasive mobile phones and RF payment systems, this will be optimally efficient for everyday use. Each new apartment building and academic building will have one or a few. In fact, we could use a couple of these here next to the new MIT Media Lab building designed by Fumihiko Maki and associates! See here the innards of one system in Tokyo (in Japanese, but the images tell the story quite well)... I first saw this after Frank Hebbert recommended it at MIT and then the GIKEN system on Danny Choo's blog and then wrote again after seeing this NHK report.

More Robotic Storage ~ Danny Choo Spotlights!

Danny Choo spotlights GIKEN's nextgen robotic bike storage in his post Japan Bike Storage. GIKEN is a major Japanese construction solutions firm, with this Eco-Cycle: Automatic Underground Bicycle Parking System only one part of their portfolio... Danny does a nice job showing the system in action... And, of course, an in-use video... I blogged earlier about the innards of such systems.

Bicycle Parking ~ Danish Design Guidelines...

A substantial part of successfully encouraging a bicycling culture is providing proper parking! Thanks to Velo Mondial for spotting this Danish Bicycle Parking Manual with bountiful examples of what works and doesn't... I'm personally especially interested in the prospect of inexpensive, modular robotic underparks packing bikes into secure, compact facilities with fast, automatic retrieval. Check out my previous blog posts about the Japanese GIKEN system: first Danny Choo's spot, second this NHK report.

ECO Cycle ~ Culture Above, Function Below!

Japanese construction design and equipment maker GIKEN created the ECO Cycle robotic underground bike storage system. I've spotlit this before, but it's such a great solution that it's worth viewing their extended promo video...