A traveling fellowship in Architecture

1991 Competition Overview

“...The body is space’s reversal,
no matter how hard you pedal.”
–Joseph Brodsky “Roman Elegies” to Urania

800 million bicycles, twice the number of cars, exist today. Bicycle production outpaces that of cars by three to one. In some countries the bicycle represents a sports machine, but for much of the world a bicycle means free access to water, food, a job, a neighbor. It can be the vehicle for a small planet.

The bicycle factory is to be located in the foothills adjacent to the ruins of the pre-Columbian city of Teotihuacan and the present-day village of San Juan Teotihuacan. This site is twenty-five miles northeast of Mexico City and has been occupied at least since 100 BC Between 450 and 750 AD it was the largest city in the pre-industrial world with a population estimated at 200,000.