2020: Upcycle
Designers:
Seok-woo Choe, Mingwei Liu, Ce Li
London, United Kingdom
Royal College of Art
Description:
The Concept Circle of Mobility aims at every users in the city. It is designed for commuters, tourists and even for those who are carrying a lot of stuffs.
The main challenge is to separate un-recyclable part and recycle part as modules. The un-recyclable part, the Powertrain (and the operation system) is constructed as such, that it can be switched and added on multiple cabin modules: A-Segment, C-Segment and Van. They are designed to be efficient and easy to maintain. Because this powertrain module is hard to recycle, it is engineered to last. The cabin modules are constructed with materials that are naturally decomposable, such as plant based fibre, glass and latex composite. Even the wheels are made of sustainable shape-memory alloy mesh, which is under development as rugged tire for exploration on extraterritorial planets and moons, even future urban environments. Every cabin has indicator capsules in the interior, which is a small glass cylinder with a seed planted in it. When the lifecycle of a decomposable cabin reaches its end, the seed in the indicator grows into a plant and breaks the glass seal of the indicator. That way, users and the service providers knows that the cabin is at the end of its urban life.
The reason why we chose this specific donor entry is because of its capacity to utilise the configurable frame based on it’s robustness of the architecture.
The concept COM (Circle of Life) increases the value of the previous commercial transportations, by transforming it into not only a passenger vehicle, but also a transportation of their memorable times.
Environmentally, it suggests a balanced solution for our civilisation of disposable everything and responsibility for the sustainability. After the full usage in urban area, the cabin can be simply disposed anywhere in the nature. It also provides home for wildlife and even grows trees from the embedded seeds in their chassis. Ultimately, at the end of its lifecycle, it enriches and even has potential to expand the frontier of the nature.
Biography:
Seek-woo Choe
Education:
Bachelors degree at University of Pforzheim in Germany
Masters degree in process at the Royal College of Arts in London.
Profession:
3 Years of industrial experience as a designer in Germany.
Mingwei, Liu
Education:
Bachelors degree at Institute of Fashion and Technology Beijing
Profession:
Masters degree in process at the Royal College of Arts in London.
4 Years of industrial experience as a designer in Shanghai.
Ce Li
Profession:
Working as a modeller in Shanghai for 4 years.