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12 Nov 2020

ITB Alumni Bamboo Innovation

Singgih Susilo Kartono is an alumnus of FSRD ITB (Product Design ’86), founder and creator of Radio Kayu Magno and Spedagi Bamboo Bike from Kandangan Village, Temanggung, which has gone global with the Japan Good Design Award G-Mark 2008, London Design Museum’s Brit Insurance Design Awards 2009 , etc. Singgih is the originator of the village revitalization movement through Papringan people’s market which has inspired hundreds of villages in Indonesia. The International Conference on Village Revitalization (ICVR) was once held in the middle of a bamboo forest, Kandangan Village.

 

Bamboo Bike Innovation

Singgih Susilo Kartono has successfully designed and produced a bamboo bicycle that has made Indonesia famous in the eyes of the world. For Singgih, the Spedagi bamboo bike was not only a form of a village resource-based product, but also a trigger for the birth of the Spedagi Village Revitalization movement. A movement that aims to bring the village back to its basic dignity as a sustainable and independent community.

 

Bicycles have now become one of the favorite alternative means of transportation for urban communities, besides being able to be used for sports. Bicycles are also environmentally friendly because they don’t cause air pollution. This opportunity was used by Singgih Susilo Kartono to make bicycles from bamboo which is widely grown in his hometown, Kandangan Hamlet, Temanggung Regency, Central Java.

 

With bamboo bikes, Singgih, who loves bicycles and is concerned with the countryside, wants to move the village community with positive and fun activities. For Singgih, the bamboo bicycle is an expression of the village’s natural wealth that never ends to be explored. Various kinds of creativity can be done with bamboo as the base material. Bamboo bikes are also a form of campaign so that urbaners want to cycle.

 

In addition, this bamboo bicycle is expected to become a social movement. Singgih wants people to be more concerned with the condition of a village, because the village has a lot of good potential to be developed.

 

Bamboo Radio Innovation

Before his success with bamboo bikes, Singgih had also made a breakthrough by creating a wooden radio which was labeled Magno Wooden Radio in 2004. Unexpectedly, the wooden radio grew into a worldwide designer product from Indonesia. The wooden radio was established as one of Time magazine’s most luxurious products in 2008.

 

Another proof that wood radio works have become world class, when we search for wooden radio keywords on the Google search engine, Magno appears in the top ranks. The wooden radio designed by Singgih is mostly marketed online, targeting foreign markets.

 

With around 30 employees in the village, orders for wooden radios are still flowing. Each year, the export value of Singgih’s wood radio reaches an average of 180 thousand US dollars

 

*From various sources

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