In 2017, Michelin created Movin’On with the aim of developing concrete solutions and innovations that facilitate people’s mobility needs, contribute to social progress and all without harming the planet. Within this framework, the French tire company incorporated the Movin’On Challenge Design contest –previously called Michellin Challenge Design-, which in its 2023 edition has been won by a Spaniard, Luis Muñoz.
The theme for this call focused on the three pillars of sustainable development: People, Planet and Economic Results (People, Planet, Profit). Artists, designers, engineers, architects, urban planners and creative people from all over the world have participated in this contest, held between September 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023.
Of all the projects presented, the Valencian proposal was the winner. And what did Link offer to decant the vote of the international jury? Well, it represents an innovative proposal for shared mobility. It is an individual, spherical, 100% electric vehicle, capable of pairing up with its clones to tow one, two or three other identical “mobility cells”. Hence its English name, which in Spanish would come to mean ‘link’. This car-sharing solution is accessible to all (including wheelchairs) and can be converted to use as public transport in a fraction of a second. Its small size favors urban mobility and relieves congestion in cities. In addition, being powered by an electric motor, it does not pollute.
Second place went to Indian contender Shaurya Singh, who presented Biocorridors, a project that proposes to restructure city centers and their habitable zones around the notion of “respect for living beings.” Specifically, this means more space for the mobility of pedestrians and bicycles, as well as for plants and animals. It is an ambitious project that takes advantage of the best assets of nature and whose greatest challenge is to make the centers of our cities more breathable, more harmonious and, above all, greener. Biodiversity and people living together in a preserved environment.
Third prize went ex aequo to two proposals. One, developed by the Czechs David Stingl and Filip Sobol, puts on the table the feasibility of using the metro to develop an autonomous supply distribution platform in the city through an intelligent modular container. This would make it possible to decongest cities on the surface and dispense with trucks and delivery vans.
The other, by Heinrich Gade (Germany), consists of a multimodal transport cabin project that promises to transport goods and people both by land, by air or by sea.
The tire company’s contest was born in 2001 under the name Michelin Challenge Design and became the Movin’On Challenge Design in 2020. Since its creation, it has received more than 16,000 applications from 134 countries.
