Highveld Stretcher: A rugid solution for rural South Africa

In Johanessburg there is a large gap in healthcare between the wealthy and the poor. People living in the townships need a better solution to transport, elderly, pregnant, and wounded patients to the outskirts of town to meet the ambulance. The current solution is a wheel barrow, we want to design something that is as easily usable but is more dignified and comfortable. It also needs to be stored in their small homes, easily manufactorable and maintainable. 

Designing was an ongoing loop of thinking we might know, researching, redesigning, asking more questions, discovering a solution, modifying the solution, building, redesigning, testing, discovering, researching, thinking we might know and redesigning.  

Working in 3D was the only way to really know if the mechanisms we designed would actually work. Most of the time the first design was lost in reiteration. We built every aspect of our design and learned more than we ever could have by actually building it full scale. 

From organizing who, what, when and how we were going to accomplish each step to encouraging my teammates to try new things, leading and managing played a big part in the success of this project.