“More freedom, rapid change, and reality definition for an emerging nomadic people…”  -Ant Farm, Truck Stop Network, 1971

The Bike Stop Network seeks to proliferate information exchange within an area known for its stunning scenery, but still somewhat unconscious of the freedom and ease that can accompany cycling.  Examining the work of the underground architecture collective Ant Farm, I sought to adapt their ideas of resource re-appropriation and exchange into this project about connecting touring cyclists with each other and the communities they explore.  By inserting a network of rest stops along the Old Scenic Bikeway in Eastern Oregon, cyclists are provided with not only facilities, but with a means to share experiences, maps, and recommendations.  This intervention further attempts to bridge the community with the traveler, contributing to the local economy and culture by encouraging a cross fertilization of ideas. 

Similarly, the contrast between technological infrastructure and ecology seeks an appropriate balance.   Accommodation sites are simple, yet embedded with a low frequency radio transmitter, which allows participants who check out a receiver to easily find the sites, regardless of changing maps, landmarks, and terrain.  The project’s formal development was influenced by this approach to the recording and transfer of data, specifically as it relates to mapping the human experience and the visual connection with radio waves and line graphs. 

Likewise, the scheme of the structure furthers this idea of exchange by joining two facing “lean-to” modules, their entrances overlapping in the interstitial space.  The modules were developed through extensive cut and fold exercises to achieve straightforward yet changeable arrangements.  Easily deployable and adaptive, they respond to both topography and use.  The particular ways in which the modules become an aggregated whole also begin to serve the transmission of information at a larger scale.  They become billboards, projection screens, and outlooks, conscious of a multi-directional course.