Bronze Sustainable Products, Projects and Green Design · 2020
UnLimited Backpack
- A' Design Award 2020 Bronze Winner in Sustainable Products, Projects and Green Design
- Awarded April 15, 2020
- CLIENT: Kuan-hua Chou
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 18,934
- Verification code 94B8E648D3 · Verify this award
About UnLimited Backpack
UnLimited is a recyclable backpack designed for urban cyclists. The backpack is fully waterproof and adjustable in size. A concertina structure allows the bag to expand for unexpected items and to compress into a slim shape that improves mobility. UnLimited is made of one material, a recyclable thermoplastic elastomer with different levels of hardness, and is sealed by heat welding. Most backpacks combine several materials and are hard to recycle. The single material construction supports reuse and recycling at the end of the service life.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- UnLimited is a recyclable, fully waterproof and size adjustable backpack tailored to the needs of an urban slow cyclist. This project aims to demonstrate the unlimited and limited requirements of space and material through a daily backpack. It can both expand to accommodate unexpected items and compress to keep the backpack streamlined to allow for better mobility.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- 290 mm x 410 mm x (20~150) mm, 860 g
- Tags
- backpack, material, exploration, sustainable, plastics, responsible consumption and production, slow cycling, commuting, unlimited, limited
- Production Technology
- The concept and production focus on concertina structure, material features and plastic production methods. Following the design philosophy for 'design of reduction', the backpack is sealed by heat welding and made of mono-material DuPont Hytrel, or similar recyclable thermoplastic elastomers with different levels of hardness. This feature is in stark contrast to the backpacks on the market today, which are multi-material and hard to recycle.
- Design Challenge
- How to bring DuPont Hytrel from industrial usages to daily life market is the first challenge of this project. Another barrier is to search suitable hardness and thickness for the concertina structure, which should provide an instantly positive user experience.
- Project Duration
- The material research started from visiting DuPont Geneva Innovation Center in October 2016. The concept development was implemented during the springs of 2017 and 2018 in London, following a release in the 2018 degree show at the Royal College of Art. The latest prototype was made in November 2019 in Tainan.
- Operation Flow
- Enough? Enough! UnLimited provides cyclists space depends on their needs. However, for the limitation of a bike, cyclists should not be a greedy user. They have to ensure the load they carry can keep their journey comfortable, not an obstacle. The project reflects balance and interaction between cyclists and their freedom of bringing as much as they can or as less as they can.
- Research
- The design research was conducted through material exploration firstly and discovering the target audience and market through survey, road observation and 1:1 interview.
- Inspiration
- Plastics that improve with age. The project is to design a product, with recyclable plastic, that is sustainable and creates a genuine bond with the user. An object that improves with age and counters some of the negative attributes often attributed to plastics such as cheap, transient and unemotional. Considering the longevity of a solution but also its place in a circular economy. What is its service life, how can it be reused, recycled or repurposed if it comes to the end of its useful life?
- Image Credits
- Photographer: Kuan-hua Chou
VIDEO CREDITS:
Filmmaker: Hiroki Yokoyama
Composer: Eternity Bro
Starring: Victoria Lynn-Hamilton, Anthony Fanna, Beatrice Maione - Patents
- Copyrights belong to Kuan-hua Chou, 2018.