Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting award-winning projects and ideas from this year’s Core77 Design Awards 2013. We will be featuring these projects by category, so stay tuned for your favorite categories of design! For full details on the project, jury commenting and more information about the awards program, go to Core77DesignAwards.com.
- Project Name: CrossTrainer
- Designer: Andrew Lowe
- Carleton University School of Industrial Design
The CrossTrainer Wheelchair is designed to introduce disabled youth to adaptive sports. Its’ innovative design qualifies it for government funding grants for daily use wheelchairs, but packs all the features of a sports wheelchair. The unique camber adjustment allows changes to the angle and position of the wheels, exponentially increasing functionality. A range of sports can be played with interchangeable front ends. Sound mass production principles lower the cost of the chair versus existing wheelchairs. These factors combine to create a wheelchair that greatly increases the accessibility of disabled sport to youth.
– How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?
Constantly Ctrl-R-ing the awards page waiting for the winners to be announced.
– What’s the latest news or development with your project?
I’ve continued to optimize the design in my own time: trying to reduce material usage, simplifying the potential tooling, reducing weight and lowering cost of the wheelchair.
– What is one quick anecdote about your project?
After a strenuous day in the university shop machining components for the wheelchair, I realized I had previously set up a date with a lady-friend. With no time to go home and change, I showed up covered in aluminum chippings from the milling machine and smelling strongly of cutting oil. I was told that the sparkly bits of aluminum “suited me” and that cutting oil made quite the cologne.
– What was an “a-ha” moment from this project?
There were two huge “a-ha” moments during this project. The first was the basic concept for the CrossTrainer Wheelchair; if most sports wheelchairs share common parts, why not combine them into one wheelchair with interchangeable components? The second happened in the reception area of a swanky company while sitting in an Eames Aluminum Group chair. I thought to myself, “If Eames can die cast a chair, why can’t I die cast a wheelchair?”
CrossTrainer also received a Runner-Up mention in the Student Consumer Products category, as well as a Notable mention in the Student Equipment category. View the full project here.
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