The theme of Interdesign 2005 was Sustainable Rural Transport - Technology for Developing Countries.

"Rural transport” as defined in the National Rural Transport Strategy document is

“…The movement of persons and goods for any conceivable purpose [including collection of water or firewood], by any conceivable means [including walking and head loading] on various types of infrastructure [including unproclaimed roads, tracks and footpaths. ”

This implies that the mode of travel does not necessarily need to be motorised or conventional, but should be suitable, cost-effective and environmentally sustainable. Also a wide variety of mode choices and trip purposes has to be considered during rural transport planning and service delivery.

The main theme was divided into the following focus areas:

1. Bicycles and Tricycles
2. Animal drawn carts
3. Alternative modes of Transport
4. A Communication Project to interact with the local communities on transport issues. Designers forming part of this group were deployed with the other groups and included local information designers able in Tswana, the language spoken by the majority of people in the North-West province.

These focus areas were approached keeping in mind

• Social aspects
• Transport management aspects
• Sustainability
• Environmental aspects

As a strategic goal, the Design Institute plans to make use of the outcomes of the Interdesign to illustrate that good design can address and solve problems facing developing communities.

Each focus area was guided by a group leader/tutor who is a senior designer. More than one group of designers could address the same focus area by exploring different aspects.

Each group was made up of designers from different disciplines, including students as well as local skills-based designers. Bart Verveckken, Head of the Industrial Design Department at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, acted as design director and co-ordinated and directed the complete design process during the workshop

Group Leaders :

• Animal Drawn Carts
  Chris Bradnum,
  Lecturer at the Industrial Design School of the University of Johannesburg
• Bicycles and Tricycles
  Roelf Mulder,
  MD of DDDXYZ, an industrial design company in Cape Town
• Alternative Modes of Transport
  Prof M P Ranjan,
  Professor in industrial design at the
  National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, India
• Alternative Modes of Transport (Stuttgart Group)
  Prof George Teodorescu
  Professor at the Academy of Visual Arts and Design,
  Stuttgart, Germany
• Communication
  Ria van Zyl
  Lecturer at the Department of Visual Arts,
  Information Design division, University of Pretoria