January 2004 - Association of Dutch Businessmen

WHEELS
Love and CarriageBy Olaf Botermans
▲
Quinny not adept
at cornering
Singapore is a fertile place. Many people arrive in
Singapore childless, only to enter the phase of early
parenthood after a couple of years. This change
has a fascinating impact on the social lives of the
would—be parents. Not only do they now carry the
responsibility for raising a child, they also develop
a whole new circle of friends with whom they can
share their new and all encompassing interest.
Topics which were not considered interesting a
few months before become the main issue of
conversation.
And within this newfound palette of
conversation, the child’s first means of
transportation becomes one of the most fiercely
debated topics. The main advantage of carriages
over other aspects of baby life such as baby
clothing, is that a carriage has wheels. This feature
makes it OK for fathers to discuss this topic with
an attention for detail that rivals the purchase of
a new computer or a new car.
Carriages are compared, debated, criticised
and defended. Practical aspects such as weight
and durability becomes a point of concern where
previously average cornering speeds, low centre
of gravity and tyre pressures would have been the
first point of attention. It has been said that parents
are raised by their children and the purchase of
a carriage indeed seems to indicate a mature
tendency to place more emphasis on practicality
and function than before.
However, fashion and trends have not entirely
been eradicated from the minds of caring parents.
In the past ten years, carriages have become,
like almost any other product, a vital ‘life style’
accessory which demonstrates how active and hip
the parents actually are. It all started with the
three wheel carriages from Venice beach which
allowed babies and toddlers to participate in their
parents active lifestyles of jogging and rollerblading
along beaches and forest trails. The number
of life style carriages mushroomed and the days of
the old-fashioned carriage seemed truly gone.
One of the more recent additions to this long
line of parent tailored carriages is from Dutch origin
and has the non-Dutch name ‘Bugaboo’. What have
Catherina Zeta Jones, Zinedine Zidane, Paul de
Leeuw, Princess Maxima, Julianne Moore, Marco
Borsato, Frans Bauer, and Miranda (Sex in the City)
in common? They all carry their offspring in the
Bugaboo.
The Bugaboo Frog was designed by Max
Barenbrug, an industrial designer, and further
developed in collaboration with a medical doctor
Eduard Zanen in an attempt to create the ideal
baby stroller.
In 1994, at the Design Academy in Eindhoven,
Max Barenbrug developed a multi-functional
stroller for his graduation project. His stroller was
designed to function with a bike and convert to a
back-pack. The product awarded Barenbrug to
graduate Cum Laude in two graduation directions
‘Mobility and Leisure’ – with a stroller and a bike.
In particular, the design for his stroller was awarded
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Vol.14 • No. 1 • January 2004