3D Printed Clip Carries Cyclists Up a Mountain

Design firm Freedom of Creation supported the fight against cancer by helping a popular fundraising event in France on 3 June this year. FOC manufactured a special clip for riders in the annual Alpe d'HuZes. The Alpe d'HuZes is a gruelling cycling event in which participants ride not once, but six times up a mountain that is used for the Tour de France. 

 

FOC's clip features the Alpe d'Huzes logo, and will be in a new color each year. This encourages participants to return and collect a new clip as a remembrance of their odyssey up the mountain. 

 

The event was clearly a success, as almost 3300 riders and over 72,000 donors produced an record amount of more than € 10,000,000 for the cancer charity. The value of the clip? Priceless.  

 

Via FOC and Alpe d'Huzes (Hat tip to Brian)

Designing Interface Architecture

FABberz and the Live Architecture Network are collaborating on a new venture to bring design tools to students in Brazil. Their idea: produce collaborative designs with residents and students to improve housing conditions in the slums of Rio de Janeiro.

They'll be holding a series of workshops leading up to the 2016 Olympics, which are being held in Rio in that year. The first workshop will be held with local architects soon. Students will be introduced to "cutting edge parametric design tools", and their goal will be housing that is not only affordable, but also sustainable. Hopefully issues with housing, crime and drugs will be reduced.

The project needs funding, as all projects do. They've chosen to use Kickstarter as their fundraising platform. The project requires USD$7,000, but has only $1,000 as of this writing. Deadline: January 9, 2010. If you would like to support this worthy venture, please proceed directly to the link below!

And you thought there were few good spin-offs from the Olympics!

Via KickStarter