Michelin North America has issued the theme for its 2019 Michelin Challenge Design competition: “Inspiring Mobility.”
The theme examines questions of why joy, trust, security or freedom are important factors in designing mobility solutions for megacities of the future. Michelin said discussions around the future of mobility often focus on what people will drive, the technologies they will use and the brands they will prefer. To meet the world’s future economic, environmental, emotional and social needs, hundreds of billions of dollars will be spent over the next 20 years to manufacture these technologies to support sustainable mobility.
“Across the globe, millions of people are migrating to urban centers every year, which has accelerated the emergence of megacities,” said Ben Ebel, chairman of Michelin Challenge Design, Michelin North America. “What will transportation look like in these cities in 2035? We are encouraging designers to appeal to the emotional side of design by first asking why a user in a megacity would choose a particular mobility system — more than just a specific vehicle concept — and what emotional need can be met with that design.”
The 2019 Michelin Challenge Design theme, “Inspiring Mobility,” invites entrants to design a mobility solution that will invoke one of several emotions — joy, trust, security or freedom — for users in Berlin, Mumbai, New York, São Paulo or Shanghai in the year 2035.
Last year, Georgii Varodi of St. Petersburg, Russia won Michelin’s competition with his for design entry “DS Bertoni,” a James Bond-like car that judges felt embodied the competition’s theme of creating a classic car for the future.
The design competition, created by Michelin in 2001, to encourages and recognizes young designers throughout the world with recent winners and finalists coming from Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, China, France, India, Italy, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, United Kingdom and the United States. Since its inception, the competition has drawn more than 13,000 entries from 130 countries.
Entries open Aug. 20, 2018, at www.michelinchallengedesign.com. Winners will be recognized at the 2019 Movin’On International Summit for Sustainable Mobility in Montreal.
