UNITED KINGDOM/FILE: Bike that purifies water among innovations up for design award

Record ID: 231039

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM/FILE: Bike that purifies water among innovations up for design award
  • Date: 23rd February 2009
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) NINA DUE (pron Dew-Ay), CURATOR DESIGN MUSEUM, SAYING: "Certainly with the Aquaduct I think it is a great example of looking at very practical and needy issues and coming up with simple solutions." ARMADILLO VEST AND FACE MASK FOR DE-MINING ON DISPLAY CLOSE UP OF FACE MASK DIAGRAM SHOWING HOW VENTILATION WORKS IN FACE MASK PHOTO OF DE-MINER WEARING ARMADILLO SUIT AND MASK
  • Embargoed: 10th March 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVACVVVZHZNG7RKHEHS4JXO85L3P
  • Story Text: Designers turn their eyes to the practical and the green at London design awards. Among the entrants is a bicycle that purifies water as it is peddled which could radically change lives of people in rural Africa.
    Practicality, innovation and aesthetics meld into one at London's Design Museum, where designers are vying to win the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year 2009.
    Among the entrants is the Aquaduct bicycle, which on the outside looks like an ordinary push bike, with a large container on the back and a one on the front fixed on the handlebars, but inside there are complex mechanics. The Aquaduct bike purifies water as it is peddled.
    Designers, American company IDEO, envisage people in rural Africa being able to use the bike to cycle to a water source, often several miles away from their village, and as they peddle the long journey home the water stored in a container on the back of the bike is pushed through a purifier and then stored in the plastic box on the front of the bike ready for safe drinking.
    IDEO hopes to refine its concept to make it commercially viable for distribution across the developing world. Nina Due (pronounced: Dew-Ay) says increasingly designer entering the competition incorporate a practicality to their imaginative creations.

    "Certainly with the Aquaduct I think it is a great example of looking at very practical and needy issues and coming up with simple solutions," she said.
    Other entrants include the Armadillo Vest and Face Mask, made by Norway's Kode Design. They wanted to create a suit for landmine clearers that is safer and more comfortable than ones traditionally worn.
    The face mask in particular has undergone a complete revamp, weighing 50 percent less and with a valve system that makes it easier to breath and get fresh air. This will help to aid comfort and therefore concentration in the dangerous task of de-mining.

    "This one has much better ventilation, it also has some goggles which are fitted much closer to the eyes, which therefore protect the eyes much better. The vest has been created to almost be a continuation of the mask, so the neck piece sort of overlaps the mask itself, which makes, when you crouch down, much more safe as well," said Due.
    Eco-friendly is the buzz word these days, and the world of design is as immersed in green ideas as anyone else.
    Norway's Th!nk City car, which is 100 percent electric and can be completely recycled is a contender for an award. Another "green"
    entrant is a weird futuristic looking love-seat chair, made of recycled newspapers.
    Due said designers have fully embraced the concept of green in their creations: "I think the green issue within design has come a very long way. Even going back ten years we associated recycle design, for example, with cut off beer bottles turned into wine glasses and so forth, which often made it a very simplistic approach to what green design could be. Nowadays it is much more sophisticated," she said.
    Up for best product award is the Senz umbrella from The Netherlands. It is the first golf aerodynamic umbrella in the world and promises never to turn itself inside out in strong winds. It has a longer tail at the back giving it not only the aerodynamic aspect, but also allowing the user to better see out the shorter front.
    The overall winner of the Brit Insurance Design Awards will be announced on March 18.

    (ends)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register