Locus A pod for delivery riders Info
Stop-motion of the timber model being assembled: the ground floor, the upper room, then the roof and tower.

A place to stop.

Locus is a two-storey timber pod for food-delivery riders. It stands in a single parking bay, on the streets where riders actually wait.

We want to build it, and we need riders to tell us how to make it better. Share your experience: [email protected]

01ResearchFour countries, the same thing missing

Riders keep the city fed. Nowhere in it is theirs.

We started with toilets and thought that was the main problem. What we found was worse: subcontracting, rented accounts, withheld papers, no safety. Research from every country we looked at points the same way.

Germany

2,000

jobs cut by Lieferando in 2025 and moved to subcontractors. The union NGG calls it a “shadow fleet”.

France

64%

of about 1,000 riders surveyed in 2025 were undocumented (Médecins du Monde). No accident cover, and reluctance to seek help.

United Kingdom

£40

a week, reportedly, to rent a verified rider account from someone who has one.

Romania

Papers

kept by employers for many migrant riders from Nepal, India and Sri Lanka (CRJ study).

Good places exist. There are far too few.

  • New YorkDeliverista Hub. Won by the riders themselves, but essentially a bench and a charger.
  • Gulf citiesShaded cooling stops. Minimal, at the scale of a bus shelter.
  • MilanAgreements with shops for toilets and water. Goodwill, not a right.
  • ParisMaison des Coursiers, run by CoopCycle. The closest, but open only four afternoons a week.

A big city needs dozens of them, close to the routes: shelter from heat, cold, rain and wind.

02SiteOne footprint every street already has
An average city parking bay, 5.6 m long and 2.4 m wide, between two parked cars.
a. Average parking bay, 2.4 × 5.6 m
The pod's site: a 4 m long rectangle inside the bay.
b. The pod's site, 2.4 × 4.0 m
The site extruded into a box.
c. Too small for a room, so it grows up
The box becomes two floors with a pitched roof and a tower.
d. A house with a tower, found at speed
03On the streetRenders, Paris
The pod at dusk on a Paris street, its translucent ground floor lit from inside, a rider cycling past.

Paris, at dusk. The translucent ground floor glows, so it can be found from the end of the street.

01 / 05

04Two floors, two temposSection across the pod

No time.

Ground floor. The algorithm's pace, step-free and seconds from the street.

  • 1Waterless toilet, serviced from outside
  • 3Drinking water
  • 4First aid and support numbers
  • 5Bike stand and repair tools
  • 7Battery charging, fire-separated
Section through the pod: ground floor with the ladder stair, the upper room, and the tower; levels +2.400, +4.530, +6.600.

Your own time.

Upper floor, reached by choice. Heated, quiet, private enough to call home.

  • 8Seats with phone charging
  • 9Coffee machine, for a hot drink
  • 10Snack machine
  • 11Microwave
  • 13Wind tower: light, fresh air, toilet vent
  • 14Drying rail for wet jackets
  • 15One large window

No login, no account, no tracking.

05ModelTimber
Front of the timber model; in the upper window, a small poster of Souleymane's Story.

Front. One large window to the upper room.

01 / 04

06Plans2.4 × 4.0 m
Ground floor plan, 2.4 by 4.0 m, with numbered elements 1 to 7: toilet, rainwater, water tap, first-aid kit, repair stand, bag storage, e-bike charger box.

Ground floor

  1. 1Toilet
  2. 2Rainwater
  3. 3Drinking water
  4. 4First-aid kit
  5. 5Repair tools
  6. 6Bag storage
  7. 7E-bike charging box
First floor plan, 2.4 by 4.0 m, with numbered elements 8 to 12: phone charging, coffee machine, snack machine, microwave, clean water storage.

First floor

  1. 8Phone charging
  2. 9Coffee machine
  3. 10Snack machine
  4. 11Microwave
  5. 12Clean water storage
  6. 13Wind tower, in section
  7. 14Drying rail, in section
  8. 15Window, in section
07NextFeedback first, then a prototype

We want to build one.

Locus started as a competition entry. We want it on a real street, used by real riders. We're two architects. We can't build it alone, and we shouldn't build it without the people it's for.

  1. 1 · NowRiders and unions. We're asking for criticism, not endorsement. What's wrong with it, what's missing, would you use it?
  2. 2 · NextPress. Telling the story, once riders' own views have shaped it.
  3. 3 · ThenA prototype. One pod in one parking bay, built with a rider organisation, a city district and funding.

A pod can't fix pay or contracts. It can make the problem more visible, support and facilitate the dialogue, and give riders something most of their work doesn't: a place that is theirs, not rented, where the conversation can continue.

08InfoIlia Aladov, Ekaterina Pestriakova
Project
Locus
Programme
Comfort pod for food-delivery riders
Site
One parking bay, any street; studied in Paris
Size
2.4 × 4.0 m, 6.6 m high
Structure
Prefabricated timber, bolted
Context
Speculative proposal for the YAC Riders' Comfort Pod competition, 2026
Team
Ilia Aladov
Ekaterina Pestriakova

Food-delivery riders spend whole shifts on the street with nowhere to use a toilet, refill water, charge a battery or get warm. Across Europe the work is moving to subcontractors and rented accounts. Architecture cannot fix that, but it can give one place in the city that asks nothing.

Download

A1 board, PDF 8.9 MB

Contact

Write to us, especially if you ride or organise riders.

[email protected]