Mai Bamboo






Normal foldable umbrellas available on the market today break easily whenever there's a strong gust of wind. I used to live in Manhattan, New York not too long ago, and all the garbage cans in street corners were filled with abandoned or tossed away broken umbrellas during any given rainy day. The way people had to "˜deal' with these ill designed umbrellas only added problems to our environment. In order to approach and correct this bad "˜trend' or "˜habit' of umbrella usage, Bamboo is specifically designed to resolve this issue once and for all.
Other than using designs and materials that are excellent for wind flow/resistance, Bamboo's structure is inspired by the concept of traditional Chinese martial art Taichi, where "˜go with the flow' would be a perfect solution to resolve the wind resistance problem that umbrella users face; rather than building a "˜stronger' structure to "˜resist' or "˜go against' the wind, Bamboo resolves this problem by "˜go with the wind': no matter which way the wind may be blowing, Bamboo will automatically turn and rotate its direction and decrease the wind resistance on the surface of the umbrella and thus makes it easier for the user to deal with the unpredictable wind.
Now what happens if the wind's still too strong and the umbrella's still flipped inside out? No worry, Bamboo is a specially designed flip-able umbrella that can be used from both ends. Inspired by real bamboo in nature, obviously, Bamboo's umbrella handle not only looks like bamboo, but also is retractable simply by pressing a button. When and if Bamboo's being flipped over by a strong gust of wind, the user can easily push the handle from one end to the other, and "˜recreate' another umbrella instantly without getting too wet.
20060902-1604-0881









Comments
I like the way you flipped this problem inside out. But I'm not sure how you would engineer the movement of the umbrella along the axis without leaving some kind of gap at the top where rain would flow through.
Posted by: Noah Robischon | September 13, 2006 9:14 PM
Love the thinking here, in particular taking the force of the wind and simply spinning the top. But don´t think it´s more than a diagram at this point. I´d encourage the designer to push this forward as they might have something here.
Posted by: grahamhill
|
September 16, 2006 6:22 AM