From Lorenzo’s bike to everyone’s bike
A customised bicycle co-designed by makers, designers, therapists, Lorenzo and his family
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A customised bicycle co-designed by makers, designers, therapists, Lorenzo and his family
Last updated
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By Federica Mandelli, OpenDot
“I pointed to the bicycle with the book of symbols that I use to communicate, speak, ask, complain. “No Lorenzo, not today, it’s cold, you have a cough, we aren’t going out on the bicycle”, they told me. I pointed to the bicycle again and I touched my chest. The bicycle, then me. My parents looked at me with surprise and with tears in their eyes, they realized what I was trying to say: I wanted my own bicycle as a birthday present.”
That was how the story started, back in 2015, when Lorenzo asked his parents for a bicycle for his fourth birthday. Said like this, it sounds as a story like many others, the only difference is that Lorenzo is affected by a complex neurological disease that makes most routine activities very difficult – and riding a bicycle is one of them.
Nevertheless, his parents began looking for the perfect bicycle for him: on the internet, in catalogues, sports shops, in specialist stores selling orthopedic goods… they finally found the perfect bicycle, it was beautiful, comfortable and seemed to be perfect. The only problem was that it was as expensive as a car and Lorenzo’s parents couldn’t afford it. They began searching again and this time their friends, Lorenzo’s physiotherapist, the doctors and TOG Foundation all got involved.
“Just like in my favorite stories, where chance meetings change things, fate stepped in to help me. I was 5 years old, TOG met and started working with OpenDot, that, if I understand correctly, is a laboratory where people invent and then build things that currently do not exist in the shops. Together, they began thinking about me and my bicycle. We were always sitting around a table, there was always coffee and measuring tools, after a number of enjoyable meetings, I started testing strange bicycles that were always different”.
Lorenzo could not have described it better: there was a table and lot of people from different background around him – makers, designers, therapists, caregiver and his family.
OpenDot and TOG Foundation have developed a method of co-design for healthcare based on 8 principles to “design with, not for people with disabilities”, by facilitating processes and stimulating creativity in order to create new solutions that improve lives and generate innovation.
A participatory and inclusive approach, technical skills, digital fabrication and agile prototyping have made the production of the bicycle possible: so when Lorenzo was 6, he finally received whate he wanted, and now... he ride fast on his bike!
The bicycle, designed and produced in the Milanese Fab Lab OpenDot, is a three-wheeler, it has smaller cranks, an ergonomic saddle, a back support and adjustable handlebars. The components were adapted from some standard elements. The 3D model was customized for Lorenzo, but can be rapidly adapted to the needs of other children with different disabilities thanks to the parametric file.
Three-dimensional parametric modelling is a design technique based on the relationship between the components of a model and its parameters, which allows one to chain changes by automating processes from numerical values that regulate. Thanks to the parametric design of Lorenzo’s bike, now Viola, Shaig and many more children with disabilities could have their own customised wooden bicycle. A great example of Distributed Design: a made-to-measure, at reasonable price, customized bike to suit one requirements that can be realised everywhere in the world thanks to the digital fabrication.
link to google folder with hr images:
