Hasta La Ideas

The phrase goes that one oughtn’t reinvent the wheel, yet we’ve seen countless examples of people trying, from square to hubless to powered. The latest wheel reinvention to make the, er, rounds comes from Ackeem Ngwenya, a student of Innovation Design Engineering at London’s RCA. Ngwenya’s designed something that looks simultaneously nutty and completely feasible: A shape-shifting wheel he’s calling “Roadless.”

The “Why” of it is pretty simple. Ngwenya grew up in rural Africa, where “head-loading” remains the most practical way to transport goods, as arduous and inefficient as it is. He reckons that a shape-shifting wheel could adapt to different terrains, thus providing a one-size-fits-all solution for load-carrying carts, bikes or vehicles in areas with no infrastructure.

The “How” of it is both simple and fascinating. By using the principle of a scissor jack, and arraying a series of them around a circle, the wheel would either grow shorter and wider, or taller and more narrow, as the mechanism is manipulated.

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