Design Thinking – Organic Forms

What is this?It is the perfect car!Strange! No way! Impossible!Well, many of us do not see a car at all. We see striking colours and bulging forms.Ross Lovegrove is famous for his organic inspired designs.  Here he has stripped the car down to its “Genesis Form.” A futuristic concept vehicle that challenges us to forget everything we know about cars! This is not about designing a car – it is finding the purest form of travelling. Lovegrove describes it as a “cocooning, womb-like biological shape”. What do you think it looks like?

• A giant magic jellybean. . .
• A sea slug. . .

What are the positive aspects of this car?

• You can sleep in it.
• It is quiet.
• Easy to park
• No need to change the tyres

Design thinking can help us explore and rethink what an object can be. Searching for the most organic and natural solution to a problem helps to sharpen our thinking. The picture challenges you to explore extremes.Calm, Soft, Biological vs. Hard, Metallic, Artificial

A jellybean shaped car sound great, yet we do not expect to buy one. This is about thinking and exploring what we can be without when we are designing a car. Similar way of thinking and using organic forms can be used when we are exploring ideas and searching for solutions. By using a design thinking approach, you can reframe issues as a design problem where human needs and nature are at the core. Provocative way to explore ideas that may lead to more focused, effective solutions. Reframing a problem is a way to challenge us to look at a new direction.

A bridge is not supposed to wobble. Engineers spend hours making sure that we can trust the structure and safely cross. Yet freeing the thinking from this idea lead to two parallel pedestrian bridges over Seine in Paris. One a relatively typical bridge with a concrete mesh bottom. And by its side a series of  narrow, wobbly paths. Which one would you choose?