About the African Bicycle Design Contest 2010-2011
The aim of the African Bicycle Design Contest 2010-2011 is to design affordable quality bicycles tuned to the needs of (potential) cyclists in Africa. The African Bicycle Design Contest 2010–2011 has two phases. The first phase, “open wiki-bike”, is an open entry competition where everybody can send in their ideas and future visions on bicycles in Africa. Open submissions for ideas and vision on www.wiki-bike.com can be made until 5 pm (GMT) on Thursday 30 September 2010. Five of these ideas will be selected by a professional jury and awarded with a student design team and a professional designer. In the second phase, “wiki-bike co-creation”, the design teams will develop a prototype and business model for the selected idea. In July 2011 the winner will be announced. The winning team will be awarded with a trip to Africa to implement the manufacturing of the prototype.
Open wiki-bike
In this first phase of the African Bicycle Design Contest we invite everyone to submit ideas and visions for affordable and sustainable bicycle designs on www.wiki-bike.com. Ideas and visions can be submitted with photos, drawings, sketches or even poems.
Assignment Submit your innovative ideas and visions on bicycle designs for Africa on wiki-bike.com. Important criteria for the submissions are the usefulness in the African context, innovative aspects in design and manufacturing and market feasibility. Another very important criterion is the sustainability (durability of the design, possibility for local manufacturing, utilisation of local available and sustainable materials.)
Jury A professional jury of reputable designers and experts on entrepreneurial business development and sustainability will select 5 winning ideas or visions from all submissions.
Award The winning entries of the open wiki-bike, the first phase of this design contest, will be awarded with a co-creation team of students and a design expert who will develop the winning entries into prototypes. The biggest award of being among the five winning entries is the chance of being the vision holders of a bicycle that might make a difference in this world. That award is priceless.
Planning Open submissions for ideas and vision on www.wiki-bike.com can be made until 5 pm (GMT) on Thursday 30 September 2010. Specific date will be announced on www.wiki-bike.com. Early October the jury will select and announce the 5 winning entries.
Wiki-bike co-creation
In this second phase of the African Bicycle Design Contest we assign a student design team plus a reputable designer as coach to the five winning entries. This wiki-bike co-creation team (student design team, designer, plus the vision holder of the submitted idea) will develop the ideas into a prototype, including a business plan for manufacturing and marketing.
Assignment The wiki-bike co-creation team is responsible for developing a prototype and a business plan for the winning idea. The final product should be a sustainable and affordable bicycle design for Africa, ready to be manufactured.
Jury A professional jury of reputable designers and experts on entrepreneurial business development and sustainability will select 1 winning team.
Award The winning team will be awarded with a trip to Africa to implement the manufacturing of the prototype. The biggest award is that this prototype will be making the difference in Africa.
Planning The wiki-bike co-creation team will be working on the prototype and business plan from October 2010 until June 2011. In July 2011 the winner will be announced.
Download here the Briefing and regulations
