Reclaiming The Streets By Cargo Bike

Last year Copenhagen art collective N55 and designer Till Wolfer created the XYZ Cargo, a cargo bike that’s able to take on a wide range of functions due to flexible modules. Now, Brussels-based collectives Urban Foxes and Soft Revolution are taking that further by developing new modules under the name of Vélo M2.

Vélo M2’s creators, who work on the cross-section of urbanism, culture and innovation, have the ambition to enhance the wellbeing in Brussels by transforming public space to the needs of the people with one square meter of flexible and temporary value. In a first phase a mobile cinema and a Brussels-style waffle workshop module will be developed, but as possibilities are endless, other cargo bike modules will follow shortly after.

The XYZ Cargo Bike that was made by N55 (known for the Walking House) and Till Wolfer

“We believe that Brussels needs real public space very bad. Not just space for cars and shops, but for people”, Bram Dewolfs of Urban Foxes and Yannick Schandene of Soft Revolution explain. “We want to create this space for humans in the city with our multi-functional cargo bike. In the process, we are doing this in a sustainable way, with our bike, and therefore promoting carbon neutral mobility in one of Europe’s most polluted and congested cities.”

The XYZ Cargo Bike can take on a wide range of functions by adding flexible modules

The cargo bike is a collaborative, cross-border effort. After the participating Belgian and Dutch collectives, including The Hague-based REFUNC, have shared the ‘naked’ cargo bike with each other, each collective will develop its own module (DJ booth, micro fab lab, mobile cinema) that can be installed on the bike when needed.

Unfortunately nothing comes for free, so Urban Foxes and Soft Revolution have started a crowd-funding campaign to cover the expenses of developing the first two modules — a mobile cinema for open-air screenings and a Belgian waffle baking module, that will be used to organize baking workshops. Dewolfs and Schandene: “People who donate a smaller sum will get movie tickets and freshly bakes waffles on our celebration party when we reach the crowd-funding goals. For a larger sum we will provide our modules and services to the event of choice, like a company team building or birthday party. Of course, they will also contribute to a healthier and less congested city of Brussels.”