Alphen aan den Rijn Municipality – Fietsappel

A unique bicycle parking facility in the shape of an apple, large enough for 1000 bicycles, aptly named the ‘Fietsappel’ now takes centre stage at the new station boulevard in Alphen aan den Rein, the Netherlands. Two parallel upward spiralling curves constitute the basic geometry of the structure. The structure consists of a triangulated space frame shell (‘apple peel’), 9 CHS columns with spiral beams (‘apple core’) and bearing mounted stalk with a cable staying suspension system (‘apple stalk’ and ‘apple leaf’).

By implementing XML scripts coding with FE technique, a parametric model is built which saves lots of modelling time. Various challenging detail engineering is required to resolve the complicated spatial geometry.