Trinacria Bike Wagon, the 4.0 cart that takes Sicily on the road
Can you imagine something as traditional as the Sicilian cart revisited in a modern and innovative way? The answer is yes, and it is a journey into the future. This is the concept behind the Carretto 4.0 Trinacria Bike Wagon project, a design object to be discovered presented to the public at Fuorisalone 2023 in Milan and now ready to seduce the world by telling the tech face of Sicily.
A project to re-design the Sicilian cart, this is the heart of the carretto 4.0 Trinacria Bike Wagon made by the Associazione Lisca Bianca in partnership with the Centro Studi Opera Don Calabria, Yam s.r.l., Sguardi Urbani, Tan Panormi and the Department of Cultural Heritage of the Sicilian Region, financed by the Fondazione con il SUD and supported by OMA (Osservatorio dei Mestieri Artigiani). The realization of the prototype took three years and the work of an international team that, in addition to designers, local and national experts, artisans and students from the Academy of Fine Arts of Palermo, it included the participation of unemployed, unemployable, neet and at-risk school dropout boys and girls showing an important social value of the initiative.
What is the carretto 4.0 Trinacria Bike Wagon 4.0?
It is a service platform that on the one hand wants to keep the classic function of the Sicilian cart unchanged, but at the same time wants to address the public with a contemporary style, with the language of our time, creating immersive and evocative experiences able of embracing the needs dictated by slow and sustainable tourism, as well as that of proximity. This electric-powered cargo bike includes several components made with robotic 3D printing; curious, however, are the large wheel covers similar to the wheels of Sicilian carts. What can be done with them? Unhook them and use them as a base for round tables for children to use! Non-stop creativity!
What is it for? On the wheels of innovation!
There are numerous functions behind this invention that allows a cultural evolution of a typically Sicilian product able to become incredibly new. The carretto 4.0 Trinacria Bike Wagon is a design object that recovers its traditional task of bringing people closer to things, a traveling platform that can transport food, entertainment and new relational forms in the squares and streets. Presented in a basic version (without the colorful decorations) at Milan Design Week, this cargo bike can be customized with the technical and creative support of digital artisans and craftsmen.
And so this cart can become perfect to enhance ancient knowledge in the contemporary, pedaling and creating a storytelling of Sicily made of excellence, for an aggregation experience based on flavors, colors, enthusiasm, memory and conviviality. The new cart will speak many languages from iconic and traditional ones typical of Sicily to comics, art, etc. The keywords that best describe the new cart are: iconicity, usability, sustainability, experience, heritage innovation, and destination management. The decorative interpretation of the traditional elements of the Sicilian cart masters in the new cargo bike recompose and evolve into decorative panels made with traditional materials and techniques through a process of reduction, reuse and recycling.
Do you want to learn more about it? Don’t miss this video!
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxwaJkvh0VI
