Concrete bike stands in elementary schools in Brno

How to prepared bike stand for 28 basic school in Brno ?

Whenever you walk around any elementary school in Brno, take a look on its bike stands. Are they made of concrete? Then you have just seen one of the products from Švec beton. Stands you can find in front of 28 elementary schools were designed by Tibor Mužík from Industry Studio. “Model must be perfect as the concrete will reflect even the smallest unevenness,” he explains. Read more about how he liked to work on the project for Brno city.

Tibor Mužík

Foto: Designer Tibor Mužík Industry_studio

How did you find this project?

Executive officer from Švec beton addressed me – Mr. Štěpán Švec. I have already worked with him on couple of projects. E.g., I was designing concrete jewels for Industry Jewels, run right by this company.

What is your inspiration when working on an order like this?

This is a hard question. It affects numerous areas. It’s some kind of a mix of something you’re born with. You may call it a talent. Then you need technical skills and experiences from previous projects. It’s important to examine respective market area, you design the product for, precisely. And at the end, also the fact if I slept well, if I am not under stress or if I had my coffee, plays a role.

Model for bike stand for 28 basic elementary school in Brno

Foto: Model concrete stand

Have you ever worked with concrete before?

I had experiences with it only from constructions I attended as an elementary school student for temporary jobs. At Švec beton, I watched to moulds’ production and casting couple of times. For my work, it’s important to know as much as possible about the technology I should work with. It’s always amazing to watch how large things it’s possible to cast.

Before you design the product, you have to make some kind of prototype. How do you do that?

In case of smaller things, it starts with 3D print models. I have my own printing machine, what is a huge advantage. If we approve it to each other, we’ll mill a wooden model. Then, it has to be adjusted so we can put it into some form. Model must be ideal as concrete with reflect even the smallest unevenness. In case of large models, milling is done with the use of polystyrene or wood.

mold full of cast concrete

Foto: The process of concreting the stand

Bike stands were successful. What is it like when you see them on the street in Brno?

It’s super. When I used to live in Brno, I used the stand once and parked my bike there. It was a great feeling.

So, what will happen then with the concrete stands? Are they going to stay only in Brno?

This is a question for Mr. Švec rather. We prepared the mould that may be used for hundreds of other pieces. Ideal would be to sell the product or to participate on tender proceedings for public areas. I would really like to see the stands in more cities. I have designed them universally so it could be laid on any base or embedded to interlocking pavements. You can use them almost anywhere.

Concrete stand for bike in Brno

Foto: Hotové a spojené stojany před ZŠ