HENRIK LUNDERBYE
The 5 Ws
What: Climbing holds made of cross-laminated birch wood where not only the material have been in consideration, but also the esthetic and ergonomics.
Why: There are an abundance of bad and ugly climbing holds. As the world enters a new era of sustainability, the climbing market has to follow. These climbing holds have been made too look good, feel good and be good (for the environment).
Where: This is the result of a Bachelor thesis at the University of Gävle.
When
2021
Who
Myself and Karolina Reit
Ergonomics
One of the most important features of a good climbing hold are the ergonomics. Whether the climbing hold is easy or hard to grip, the climbing hold have to be safe to use.
HÄNG
The climbing hold of your dreams
Material testing
In order to find a more sustainable compliment to the existing polyurethane climbing holds, a thorough material testing process was needed. Polyurethane is a common material in climbing holds due to its beneficial material properties. In our process, we find that wood be suitable for climbing holds if the surface could better stand punches and kicks that would usually result in damage. Wood impregnation was tested to see if the desired surface structure could achieved. Adding colour to the process was also tested.
Ideation
Since the new improved climbing holds needed to combine good ergonomics, nice aesthetic and a material that has similar properties as hard plastic, many different ideas needed to be tested and validated before prototyping. One way of ideating was to sketch first, and then bring the sketches to life by using clay.
Esthetic
We were both inspired by the famous architect Zaha Hadid amazing buildings. We decided to draw inspiration of the curved architecture to the climbing holds. In the picture above you can see our inspiration board for the climbing holds.
Material
Discovering what type of materials for the climbing holds took a big part of the project since the material properties were very specific due to the demanding environment the climbing holds will be placed in.
Pictures from the process
