We wanted to show the spatial advantage of bikes vs cars. And we did it, literally. We crushed an old car, melted it and, with the help of design, transformed the material into a bike rack with 26 bike spaces. In order to make people understand that the new bike rack used to be a car, we kept the car shape and added a strong message to it: “This bike rack used to be a car. Now it holds 26 bikes. Park yours here.”

The reinCARnation was made from the parts of a crushed car (an old Fiat 147, a very popular car in Brazil in the 70s and 80s). In order to make people understand that the bike rack used to be a car, we kept the car shape and also added a car shadow to the reinCARnation, which read, “This bike rack used to be a car. Now it holds 26 bikes. Park yours here.”

Embraced by activists and covered by the specialized media, we left the bike rack (this modern kind of billboard) for another 10 days spreading our message, which it really did: 4 museums in São Paulo have already requested their own reinCARnation.

Velodrome has stood for the use of urban bikes for years, but finally the cars vs bikes debate has made its way into people’s hearts and the media – so it was the perfect opportunity to launch the reinCARnation idea, which was first shown in an event full of pro-bike activists, so they could endorse and help spread the idea. And they did so.

With 10 million people and 8 million vehicles, São Paulo’s transportation system has maxed out. Many people started questioning the heavy use of cars by its citizens and we wanted to join this discussion with more than arguments. We wanted to show physical evidence. So, instead of talking about the advantages of bicycles, we showed them.