1

URBAN BIKE RATTAN

ICHWAN JOESOEF

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Philosophy behind a good succesful product is a consideration to take before

designing a product. Designer have a responsibility to find a reason for a product to

exist, Michael Young noted on one of his seminar about his recent project.

Up until today, the application of rattan has never been vary so much far from

furniture and house hold appliances (Martono and Suprianal 1999). Rattan as a

natural resource for Indonesian revenue has been slightly dropped for several years

even steps have been carried out to improve the product added value (Sriwarno

2011). The results of a recent research upon laminated rattan structure proven there

is a big opportunity to develop the new structure for many kind of new application

and invention. This validity has brought a justification to took rattan as a material of

this research subject is feasible.

Many South East Asian cities have experienced substantial physical, economic

and social transformations during the past several decades. The rapid pace of

globalization and economic restructuring has resulted in receiving the full impact

of urbanization pressures (Teriman, Yigitcanlar and Mayere 2010). According to city

planner Todd Litman, cost savings associated with increased gasoline prices and lower

levels of urban sprawl have been cited in terms of personal savings, environmental

awareness, reduced costs through lower travel times and congestion, and reduced

income inequality. In addition to income subject, cycling instead of driving can actually

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stimulate economic development, indicated by a study revealing that ‘automobile

expenditures provide far less regional economic activity and employment than most

other consumer expenditures, indicating that reducing automobile dependency

tends to increase economic development’ (Litman 2008).

The effect of globalization to the rural area where cycling used to be considered

as predominant selection, gradually have been shifted by the uprising of motorcycle

sales. Where as in the big city, the notion of living a healthy lifestyle is indicated by

the staggering uprising bicycle sales in the past few years. Altough according to the

data, Indonesia is third country in the world with the most rapid growth in bike sales.

In 2010 the number of bike sales in Indonesia reached 5 million units. For the year

2011, the figure increased 30 % to 6.5 million units (Febrian 2011).

The data became a starting point for this project, to proof that people are

still going to buy bicycle in Indonesia for a couple years ahead. With Indonesia

purchasing power is rising for the young middle to upper segment indicated by the

GDP percentage over the last three year (BPS- Statistics Indonesia 2011). The young

middle - upper segment are going to be the people without reluctant will consider

purchasing bicycle, either for everyday commuter or lifestyle (Beckendorff 2012)

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ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

DESIGN OBJECTIVES

1.0 TASK CLARIFICATION

DESIGN METHODS

RATTAN TREND

LAMINATED RATTAN

BICYCLE AND MATERIAL

INDONESIA BICYCLE MOMENTUM

OBJECT GUIDELINES

PERSONAS

ERGONOMICS

ANTROPOMETRICS

BODY STORMING

CONCEPT GENERATION

MID YEAR DESIGN OUTCOME

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10

12

16

19

25

30

45

55

56

66

68

69

70

86

PAGECONTENT

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DIMENSION AND PACKAGE

2.0 PRODUCT DESIGN SPESIFICATION

REQUIREMENTS

STANDARDS

3.0 CRITICAL JUSTIFICATION

GANTT CHART

DESIGN REFINEMENT

THEME BOARDS

COLOR AND TRIM JOB

BUILD PROCESS

FINAL DESIGN

PACKAGE

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

LIST OF ILLUSTRATION

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PAGECONTENT

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Indonesia has been blessed as a country with exceptional natural resources and

biodiversity, endowed with some of the most extensive and biologically diverse

tropical forests in the world. Stated almost thirty millions out of 220 millions

Indonesians depend directly on these more than 100 million hectares forests for their

livelihoods, whether gathering forest products for their daily needs or working in

the wood-processing sectors of the economy. Rattan is one of the rich resources that

can be found in Indonesia’s forest. From 143 million hectares of forest in Indonesia,

rattan cane forest area are estimated approximately 13.20 million hectares, which

is scattered in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Java and other islands with forests

nature.

The world has widely known rattan for its usage in furniture. Rattan furniture has

been popular in the western world since the early of the 19th century. Demand

for rattan furniture hasn’t actually stopped for almost three generations for rattan

furniture makers in Java whom have passed their skills from generation to generation.

After the regime transition happened in 1998 in Indonesia, now the government

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implemented policies to barricade the export of natural rattan raw material to

buyers as an effort to encourage the growth of domestic rattan industry. This of

course made buyers substitute natural rattan to synthetic rattan made of plastics,

rattan furniture producers in Spain, Italy and Finland as a result developed synthetic

rattan from plastic substances since natural rattan was rarely found in the market.

Given this opportunity, comes the challenge of what to do next with rattan?

This is a challenge for designers to shift the traditional paradigm of using rattan

for its furniture application. Design plays an increasingly important role in the

competitiveness of marketed product, something that Indonesians keep neglecting.

Business models based around design and added value are replacing increasingly

price-based competition (Rusten and Bryson 2009). From this reason by engaging

industrial design research, this project is about seeking the opportunity exploring

the possibility of design a non-furniture rattan application specifically to contribute

solving urban transport issue from practical and theoretical comprehension.

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The first time what makes this project exciting It is common thought among

designer if you made something for yourself there is a syndrome call 99% job.

Somethingisjustnotquitethereyet.Thisprojectisnolessexception.Thewriter

realizethisisstillfarfromatermcallperfectletalonegooddesign.Onawhole,

thisprojectprobablyabestattempttoprovethatthereisstillalotofroomfor

developmenttotherattanindustryspecificallyinIndonesia.

Thisprojectasidefrombeingthefirsttimepeoplewouldtrytobuildabicycleout

ofrattan,itisalsoaproveofhowvulnerabletheindustryare.Productionofgood

hadtobesetonveryspecifictarget,thateveryoneiscommittotheproject.

Being far from ideal, there is a couple of step the writer realize could’ve been done

better:

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• Design process, if just there’s a chance to make them right, on the design process

an actual sample of material could’ve been more than helpful to analyze a

betterdesignoutcome.

• Productionprocessandassemblyturnsouttobeverycrucial.Havingall the

processarebeingbuilthandcrafted,tolerancetofailureisenormous.Aquote

of verse from Koran ‘In time,man is loss’ , that iswhy planning had to be

meticuloustosucceed.

Aside from the finance for this project, time is of course an obstacle for the

outcomewouldhavebeenentirelydifferent.Butfinallyseeingthefinaloutcome,

thewriterwouldbelievethisinitialprojectusingrattanforatransportuseisadeal

breaker.