Harry Hits the Headlines
Posted by Richard Bosselman for Autos - Fri, 03 Jun 2011 15:12
Somewhere in America is a Kiwi whose 'can-do' has become the talk of one of the world's biggest auto shows.
As far as I know, Whangaparaoa 22-year-old Harry Henriksen is still touring the United States.
I'd hoped to make contact to bring the inside story, but as I write there's been no reply to our emails. Last heard, he was somewhere on the Pacific Coast, about the only part of North America not enveloped in snow.
Good on him. Harry is apparently taking a bit of a break, and he deserves it. Over the past week, this young designer has been the talk of the Detroit motor show, which opened on January 10 and continues until the weekend.
The subject of keen discussion is the Switch. This is Harry's vision of a hybrid car that becomes a motorbike, designed to beat gridlock in a world 10 years from now.
Switch has made headlines in the specialist automotive media after been cited as one of the standouts among 25 international entries considered for the finals of the Michelin Design Challenge, a top-level event associate with the Detroit show.
A judging panel comprising top names in transport design - from Nissan, Ford, Honda, Volvo and General Motors along with Burt Rutan, the world-renowned aerospace designer and entrepreneur - had particular praise for Harry's futuristic solution. It's easy to imagine their accolades could open doors.
The thing about Switch is that it is the work of a guy who has almost finished his fourth year with a Degree in Transport Design at Massey University's Albany campus, with an expected graduation early this year.
Harry had frustrated commuters and the environment in mind when shaping Switch.
The machine is designed to transform at the push of a button from a car to a motorbike and back again, so to allow a driver stuck in traffic to switch from car to a motorbike and zip between lanes.
"I did a lot of research on commuter problems and looked ahead to 2020," he said prior to leaving for the Detroit show.
"The population is going to keep growing and so will traffic congestion."
As part of his study, he did a survey of vehicle occupancy on a busy stretch of North Shore motorway and observed that most cars had just a driver. Switch is designed for one person to choose between the comfort of a small car and convenience of a motorbike.
Switch would have a hybrid petrol-electric drivetrain and would run on rechargeable batteries with a hydraulics system to shift it between car and motorbike modes.
Henriksen also proposes Switch would be equipped to operate with newly emerging electronics technology, used in computer games, for self-navigation and car-to-car (or bike-to-bike) communication.
"Ten years is a long time. A lot of new infrastructure will be in place by then, with more recharging stations and cars being computerised." Ensuring his design has a "green footprint" was a major concern, he says.
This was the ninth year for the international competition where individual designers, teams, studios, and companies submit full-size vehicles, scale models and renderings in support of the central theme.
Entrants were this time asked to create concepts that could dramatically improve energy efficiency, minimize environmental impact and satisfy consumer demand for an attractive and usable vehicle design.
They were also encouraged to explore the future of transportation and to design a vehicle equipped with an alternative powertrain that integrates one or more electric-driven components, and uses innovative technologies, materials, electronics, size and shapes in new and unprecedented ways.
More than 290 entries from 59 countries were received and a nine-person international jury then sifted these to drawings and scale models from 33 individuals and companies, representing 17 countries.
Harry was up against designers from Austria, Bulgaria, China, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, South Korea and United States.
Remarkably, when he left school, Harry knew nothing of design. He simply felt compelled to further his education. In a career precis provided to Michelin, he says he remembered thinking that whatever he did, it was going to do something that he would enjoy no matter what.
At an open day at Massey University, he watched a graduate from the design campus sketching and rendering concept vehicles and that's when he knew where he wanted to be.
What this means to you: This could be the start of something big for a talented Kiwi. Well done, Harry, wherever you are ...
As far as I know, Whangaparaoa 22-year-old Harry Henriksen is still touring the United States.
I'd hoped to make contact to bring the inside story, but as I write there's been no reply to our emails. Last heard, he was somewhere on the Pacific Coast, about the only part of North America not enveloped in snow.
Good on him. Harry is apparently taking a bit of a break, and he deserves it. Over the past week, this young designer has been the talk of the Detroit motor show, which opened on January 10 and continues until the weekend.
The subject of keen discussion is the Switch. This is Harry's vision of a hybrid car that becomes a motorbike, designed to beat gridlock in a world 10 years from now.
Switch has made headlines in the specialist automotive media after been cited as one of the standouts among 25 international entries considered for the finals of the Michelin Design Challenge, a top-level event associate with the Detroit show.
A judging panel comprising top names in transport design - from Nissan, Ford, Honda, Volvo and General Motors along with Burt Rutan, the world-renowned aerospace designer and entrepreneur - had particular praise for Harry's futuristic solution. It's easy to imagine their accolades could open doors.
The thing about Switch is that it is the work of a guy who has almost finished his fourth year with a Degree in Transport Design at Massey University's Albany campus, with an expected graduation early this year.
Harry had frustrated commuters and the environment in mind when shaping Switch.
The machine is designed to transform at the push of a button from a car to a motorbike and back again, so to allow a driver stuck in traffic to switch from car to a motorbike and zip between lanes.
"I did a lot of research on commuter problems and looked ahead to 2020," he said prior to leaving for the Detroit show.
"The population is going to keep growing and so will traffic congestion."
As part of his study, he did a survey of vehicle occupancy on a busy stretch of North Shore motorway and observed that most cars had just a driver. Switch is designed for one person to choose between the comfort of a small car and convenience of a motorbike.
Switch would have a hybrid petrol-electric drivetrain and would run on rechargeable batteries with a hydraulics system to shift it between car and motorbike modes.
Henriksen also proposes Switch would be equipped to operate with newly emerging electronics technology, used in computer games, for self-navigation and car-to-car (or bike-to-bike) communication.
"Ten years is a long time. A lot of new infrastructure will be in place by then, with more recharging stations and cars being computerised." Ensuring his design has a "green footprint" was a major concern, he says.
This was the ninth year for the international competition where individual designers, teams, studios, and companies submit full-size vehicles, scale models and renderings in support of the central theme.
Entrants were this time asked to create concepts that could dramatically improve energy efficiency, minimize environmental impact and satisfy consumer demand for an attractive and usable vehicle design.
They were also encouraged to explore the future of transportation and to design a vehicle equipped with an alternative powertrain that integrates one or more electric-driven components, and uses innovative technologies, materials, electronics, size and shapes in new and unprecedented ways.
More than 290 entries from 59 countries were received and a nine-person international jury then sifted these to drawings and scale models from 33 individuals and companies, representing 17 countries.
Harry was up against designers from Austria, Bulgaria, China, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, South Korea and United States.
Remarkably, when he left school, Harry knew nothing of design. He simply felt compelled to further his education. In a career precis provided to Michelin, he says he remembered thinking that whatever he did, it was going to do something that he would enjoy no matter what.
At an open day at Massey University, he watched a graduate from the design campus sketching and rendering concept vehicles and that's when he knew where he wanted to be.
What this means to you: This could be the start of something big for a talented Kiwi. Well done, Harry, wherever you are ...
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