Bondage in Fifth Gear

Bondage in Fifth Gear plays with the boundaries of tension; it explores the ways in which architecture can incarnate and enflesh drives and visceral experiences. It seeks new, unexpected tensions by exploring the idea that stimulation could come from an architecture of sensation. The project embraces otherness and provocation, and seeks to give architecture a surreal, sensory and anatomical life; where fat, muscle, sinew and bone are both structural and experiential. The proposal is a culmination of subcultural poetics drawn from a tectonic investigation of affect as a flirtation between speed, tension and proximity. The intertwined worlds of leather and motorcycle culture are embraced in an architecture that investigates the capabilities of a building to not only provide stimulation to its inhabitants, but also to itself – as a sensory being – by interacting with the bikes’ speed and force as they ride and bind it.

The project is located within a traffic intersection in Brussels and hosts the following: a motorcycle track that performs restraint on the building, a workshop for bike service, a biker social-club café and bar. Technical questions raised involve the rerouting of motorcycle traffic into and onto the building, and the possibility of creating the building’s own anatomical logic derived from 1:1 material findings.

Parthenia

Parthenia is where the project begins; she is a 1:1 sculptural companion whose anatomical logic is defined by the interactive dynamic between herself and her carver.

Long Section

This section indicates where bikers first pierce the building and enter the motorcycle bondage track. They share glimpses and dialogue with the visitors inside as they ride. The rumble of their engines filters through specific spaces, adding to the sensory experience.

Closeup of the Leather Mezzanine

Closeup of the Motorcycle Bondage Ramp Entrance

Parthenia’s Curves

Detail of Parthenia’s steam-bent and hand-carved muscular timber form. 

Mezzanine Plan

The mezzanine plan cuts through one of the bar floors that leads to a performance dome, as well as one of the bike workshop levels that has a view of the railway. The motorcycle bondage track’s entrance can be seen from visitors standing on the mezzanine landing.

Motorcycle Tracking Diagram in Plan

This map outlines the key information that comes into play when bikers ride the bondage track. The angles of entry into the building, the variance in the potential paths relative to (permitted) speeds and turning angles on the track, as well as the inclines and route that connects the track to the boulevard are highlighted.