openbike
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
Openbike is a manifesto on sustainable urbanism, urban transport, distributed manufacturing, shared knowledge, the community and the responsible use of resources, that materializes in the design of a non-polluting urban transport, the bicycle, that can be manufactured by its own user within the city where it is going to be used.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
Openbike is a manifesto on sustainable urbanism, urban transport, distributed manufacturing, shared knowledge, the community and the responsible use of resources, that materializes in the design of a non-polluting urban transport, the bicycle, that can be manufactured by its own user within the city where it is going to be used.
Empowered citizens. Citizens as a transforming agent, putting technology at their service and prioritizing local production with local resources, generating active and productive cities.
Productive Cities. We can access Openbike shared digital information from anywhere in the world to materialize it locally and sustainably using local digital fabrication labs. We don’t transport materials but data.
Open Source Design. Developing and share knowledge, generating designs that are available on the network to be improved, modified, manufactured and shared again. The Openbike design is downloadable with a Creative Commons License.
Zero Emission. Looking to the future from an ecological perspective, trying to reduce carbon print.
Universal. The bike as an universal transport is used by millions of people all over the planet without matter your age, gender, origin or culture.
Key objectives for sustainability
Our project seeks a new urban model in terms of sustainability in which the citizen is the main axis of change. And it launches the challenge of achieving self-sufficient cities. Openbike offers the citizens the necessary methods for manufacturing a non-polluting means of urban transport, the bicycle, by themselves. In increasingly dense and populated cities, the use of non-polluting transport is key and essential for coexistence.
The bicycle designs resulting from this initiative must be able to be manufactured by users using the resources of a local digital fabrication workshop (fablab) such as 3D printing and CNC cutting and reused bicycle parts, manufacturing methods that generate a controlled minimum amount of waste. We do not transport materials but data to reduce the carbon footprint associated with transport.
We can affirm that Openbike:
- promotes the use of non-polluting urban transport, the bicycle.
- uses fabricating methods that minimize waste.
- reuse components from other bikes betting on giving objects a second life
- digital fabrication and self assembly give the possibility to repair or replace parts that have been damaged or improved.
- commitment to local manufacturing helping to create and maintain more sustainable productive cities.
- transports data instead of materials reducing the carbon footprint.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Openbike is a project that uses design as a tool for change and for citizen empowerment.
The proposal generates different bicycle models with a careful design that makes them iconic elements that give visibility to the project.
Different Openbike models have participated in exhibitions in art centers and galleries.
The Openbike project and, therefore, one of its models has been selected to be part of the exhibition of the Spanish Pavilion of the Biennale di Venezia 2021 and the Biennale of architecture and urbanism of SEoul SBAU 2021 for its powerful image that captures the attention of the citizen and brings him closer to the principles that we want to convey.
Key objectives for inclusion
The bicycle is a means of transport that does not make distinctions of age, gender, origin, culture, purchasing power, etc.
Each new version of Openbike has tried to be more and more universal, suitable for users of all sizes and conditions, in addition the Openbike project gives the possibility of adapting the bicycle models that it generates to the characteristics of each user.
One of the bases of the project is that the resulting bicycles are manufactured by their users, so the designs are simple to manufacture and assemble and the materials are easy to obtain in the cities where the Openbikes will be used.
Anyone is capable of making their own customized Openbike.
Different Openbikes, adapted to the conditions of each environment and each citizen, manufactured by a young woman from Lisbon or by a retiree from Berlin who, although different, are part of a large global community thanks to their common origin.
Results in relation to category
Openbike provides attractive bicycle designs that promote a sustainable lifestyle, both for its way of being shared and manufactured and for promoting the use of the bicycle as urban transport that adapt to the characteristics of any user.
We use design as a claim for the Openbike Manifesto and try to generate shocking designs to grab people's attention.
The product mixes two types of fabrication that we find today. On the one hand, the most technological and digital, which responds to the use of CNC machines and 3d printers, and on the other hand, manual manufacturing, which responds to a traditional and, therefore, artisan way of doing things.
In this way, we want to show the user that both manufacturing methods can coexist in a contemporary way.
How Citizens benefit
Starting from the principles of open design, people who develop and share knowledge, generating designs that are free on the network to be shared again, improved, modified, manufactured, ... again and again, a development and design based on use of local resources but with global techniques and tools adapted to their particular characteristics (cultural, social, material, ...). That is, the design is downloadable and modifiable by the user himself
The objective is to empower citizens as a transforming agent, putting technology at their service and prioritizing local production with local resources, which generates active and productive cities, looking to the future from an ecological perspective, trying to reduce carbon emissions.
Openbike is a living project, in constant change, the first Openbike model was developed collaboratively, making an appeal to all citizens of Donostia interested in participating in this project and accompanied by Medialab Donostia (CICC Tabakalera) and it has been evolving since 2015 to actuality.
Innovative character
Openbike is an innovative project in how it raises the relationship of the citizen with the future of their city. We want citizens to be an active part in the process of change in their city, empowered citizens in productive cities.
With the use of technology traditionally relegated to the industry now accessible to domestic uses, the citizen leads the manufacture of his own means of transport.
