Description
A bunk bed frame that can dismantle, rearrange and transform into two functions: a place to sleep and a mobile storage unit. The bed frame design makes two beds that can be stacked to become a bunk bed. It can also be transformed into a "vehicle state", where it acts as a cart for mobile storage.
HOW IT WORKS
This bed frame comes with specially designed hinges that provide two functions for the bed frame depending on the placement of the bolts: a bunkbed or a mobile storage unit.
The wheels can act as hinges to lock the two bed frames and function as a bunk bed or it could be placed at the bottom of the frame to perform as wheels and function as a cart.
The frame itself is made out of materials the villagers currently use to make their own bed frames. These materials are either metal rods or PVC tubes. Holes are drilled into the tubes to make the bed frame size adjustable with bolts. The cross section of the bed frame utilizes the same method that is used in making chairs, a charpai weave with woven rope.
Rationale
This design is intended for rural communities in China who are continuously displaced by urban developers. There is a demographic in China described as “Self Built Housing Communities”, where they live in open areas in the suburbs and build their own infrastructure out of found scrap materials. The families residing in these villages are constantly forced to uproot their lives and resettle further out in the countryside due to construction companies pursuit to urbanize rural areas.
Research
Between 7-12 years old I lived in the suburbs of Beijing, China in Shunyi District, I often go and play in the nearby villages and grew close to the families who resided there. I moved away for four years and when I came back, a majority of the villages were demolished and the areas became a wasteland. The information I gathered about this demographic is based on the experiences the villagers shared with me.
I learned that construction companies want to convert the land into urban spaces and build apartment complexes. To achieve this, bulldozers came and demolished the villagers' homes hoping to chase them out. Without proper paperwork, the construction companies weren’t authorized to build and so the land was left covered in demolition. Some families had no places to go and so they returned to the area and built their own infrastructure out of scrap materials and other found objects from the demolition. In order for the developers and construction companies to proceed with their building, they needed to keep this land vacated for a certain period of time. They responded by continuously demolishing the infrastructure the village community built.
Initial Sketches
Ideation Models
Implementation
How does the target user get access to this design?
Open sourcing would be the quickest and easiest way to distribute this design. Since these self-built housing communities are already accustom to building their own furniture and infrastructure out of found materials, I've decided to create an instruction manual for the BedFrame Cart, which would be shared online. The only specific parts of this design that is needed are the disc joints that transforms the bed frame into a storage vehicle.
Instruction Manual
