AÑO
2015
CATEGORÍA
Comunidad
OBJETIVOS
Industria, innovación e infraestructura
PAL. CLAVE
Rural Transportation, Local production, Bottom of the pyramid
PAÍS
South Africa
CRÉDITOS
I am Ackeem Ngwenya, I am multi-disciplinary designer and founder of Roadless; a project based my childhood experiences.
Most design products are developed for people in the middle and the top of the socio-economic pyramid, while the base of the pyramid is almost ignored. In my design practice I subvert the pyramid because I believe that by developing innovative solutions, design and creativity can play tremendous roles in solving some of Africa's persistent and crippling problems.
LINK
http://cargocollective.com/Roadless
Ackeem
Roadless wheels can transform & deliver market access to rural communities with bad infrastructure.
Many subsistence farmers across rural Africa rely head-carrying goods as their main form of transport to get crops to market centres. This is because they have minimal access to transport services, which is largely caused by inadequate transport infrastructure. The burden of carrying such goods often falls on women and children, who have to walk long distances with heavy goods.
A typical approach to addressing inadequate transport infrastructure would be for a government to construct new roads, but this is expensive and may be subject to corrupt practices. And so instead of focusing on roads, Roadless is developing a solution that works in spite of the terrible road conditions, in the form of transforming wheels that can be adapted to suit different terrain conditions, such as muddy and rough terrains, which are typical conditions in rural communities.
The wheels could be used on different applications to provide transport services and spare people the burden of head loading.