Amphibian transport for Base-of-Pyramid users in Vietnam
Keywords: Products
Team: 5 members (Product design, Interaction design)
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Problem. Vietnam’s bottom of the pyramid certainly has to face a lot of problems concerning healthcare, education and housing. Most of these aspects are (rapidly) improving however. One good example is healthcare, which is quickly getting up to acceptable standards. The problem tackled in this project is transportation.
The idea. A large part of Vietnam’s population is working in agriculture. People provide their own livings by raising cattle and growing crops, which are then sold on local markets. This involves transportation of these good, which are often large in volume and quantity. Most Vietnamese people are limited to the use of bicycles and mopeds for the transportation of these goods, since only few can afford automobiles. People are therefore severely limited in the amount of stuff they can transport and subsequently sell on the markets. This results in some very ingenious ways of transportation, which are not always safe or efficient. Designing a new means of transportation that is affordable and allows for more goods to be carried, could be a very large contribution to the people’s mobility and quality of life. More goods could be carried and sold, thus more profits can be made with less expenses and effort.
We also see that a lot of transportation takes place on rivers, since many villages are situated near water. If we could design a means of transportation that could both be used on the water as well as on roads, we could solve a lot of transportation issues. Therefore an amphibian vehicle is conceptualised that can carry a lot of goods and that can be used on both water and land. It should be cheap and easy to make, using local resources (bamboo, textile, etc.) It should be as low-tech as possible and should be easy to operate and handle.