Life-saving medical transport design chosen as ‘best-of-the-best’ in international design competition
Vancouver BC – The Bambulance Design Team and Vancouver’s Design for Development Society are pleased to announce the official selection of the Bambulance Project as a 2009 INDEX: Awards Finalist.
The INDEX: Award is the largest monetary design award in the world, offering a purse of €500,000 divided among five categories of “design to improve life”. This international award is accompanied by a travelling exhibition in which the work of each finalist goes on display, first within the award’s home country of Denmark and then to destinations such as Australia and Singapore. The intent of theINDEX:Award is to inspire design worldwide that responds to the needs of people in societies, both developed and developing. The finalists for INDEX:Award 2009 have been selected by the internationalINDEX: jury as the best of the best from a record-setting number of nominations — more than 700 — from 54 countries.
The Bambulance Project has been chosen as an INDEX: finalist because of the extent to which it embodies the notion of “design to improve life”. The Bambulance Project, designed for rural communities in developing countries, provides under-served communities with safe and affordable medical transportation. With the aim of increasing access to medical services by creating a well-designed, locally manufactured solution, the Bambulance is a bicycle-pulled stretcher made almost entirely from strong and sustainable bamboo. Designed for areas in which bamboo is plentiful, the Bambulance project will debut in western Kenya. In addition to saving lives by enabling safe and efficient medical transportation, the project will train community-based organizations in design, manufacturing and distribution skills. In this way the project aims to build economic independence and opportunity within groups for whom increased income and skills will have maximum impact.
The Bambulance team – Chris Ryan, Philippa Mennell, Niki Dun, and Philippe Schlesser – is extremely excited to be a finalist in this year’s INDEX: Awards. “We are thrilled to have been selected from more than 700 nominees to be among the final 72,” says co-lead designer Philippa Mennell. “The exposure and acclaim offered by the INDEX: Award Exhibition, as well as the opportunity to compete for the Award, will be hugely beneficial for the Bambulance project as we continue to raise funds to launch the pilot in Western Kenya.”
The INDEX:Award, Exhibitions and Events were founded in 2002 by a non-profit organization led by HRH the Crown Prince of Denmark. Since their inception, finalists have included such remarkable projects as the One Laptop Per Child’s hand-cranked XO Laptop, the Mobility for Each One $8 prosthetic for victims of landmines, and the Lifestraw, which prevents waterborne diseases.
The Bambulance Design Team and the Design For Development Society hope that you will stay tuned for developments in the Bambulance project over the following months. Watch for the prototype on display at the Velo-City: Vancouver and the Bicycle Revolution exhibition, running June 3rd to September 7th at the Vancouver Museum. On August 21st the INDEX:Award Exhibition opens in Copenhagen, and the Award winners are announced on August 28th. Follow the Bambulance team’s progress online at http://www.indexaward.dk/.
)