Competition Winners

Caring for Cyclists

Light Protection Cycle Lanes design competition for safer cycling and beautiful streets

The theme of the 2021 London Festival of Architecture is ‘Care’. In response, the CICC organised a  competition open to designers from around the world to come up with innovative ideas to protect cyclists on busy roads as well as the needs and safety of pedestrians.

In recent years, and accelerated by COVID19, light segregation has become increasingly ubiquitous –  London alone has installed some 100km of bike lanes in the capital as part of the Mayor’s  Streetspace programme. However, the proliferation of plastic wands and barriers has done little to enhance our streetscapes, after two decades of attempts to declutter public areas we are filling them again with new and essential infrastructure. 

How do we design such protection in a way that puts safety first but responds to the context of the urban environment? Can we find more beautiful options? Light segregation combines the benefits of cost, speed of delivery, and adaptability.

Judges: David Byrne of Talking Heads and author of Bicycle Diaries; TV Presenter Jeremy Vine;  Walking and Cycling Commissioner Will Norman; London’s Bicycle Mayor Lucy Mahoney; Cllr Clyde  Loakes, LB Waltham Forest. Technical assessors: Elad Eisenstein, Programme Director Oxford Street  district; Sophie Thompson, LDA Design; Susan Claris, Arup; Brian Deegan of Urban Movement,  Anthony Lau of Cyclehoop, Peter Murray CICC