Douglas Leroy

Douglas Leroy is a passionate transportation designer living between Paris and London. He grew up in the suburbs of Cannes and did a bachelor of Industrial Design at the ENSAAMA Olivier de Serres in Paris where he learned how to frame his creativity in a context of production and developement for potential companies. He also worked for Eurosport as a Creative Researcher for their upcoming racing series: World ETCR.

His time at the RCA has been crucial as he dug deeper into the future of alternative mobility, as cities around the world are transitioning and going car-free to meet ecological goals.

As the pandemic hit and people were locked in, cities were finally able to start there long-awaited transition. Since the Paris Agreement of 2015, cities are looking to masssively decrease their amount of car infrastructures to recondense, decrease their carbon footprint and offer more space to pedestrians and alternative mobility.

As lockdown carried on around the world, bike use and bike infrastructures spiked like never before and could be the beginning of a all-new new of transportation.

Douglas believes that once the infrastructures of cities around the world would accomodate all type of transportation, alternative and micro mobility will be so diverse that anyone will be able to tailor it to who they are and express themselves.

In the future I will be moving the way I am.

Automotive Human Thesis Video — The thesis video aims to sum up the thinking process of the project and its outcome. It is as simple as we love cars but there is too many of them so let's find another way to feel complete while we move.

How to provide the same level of freedom that cars once provided in car-free cities?

We have used cars for over a century to have complete physical freedom everyday. But we also learned to express ourselves with them and see the car as an extension of ourselves, providing us emotional freedom.

Now that cities are planning to get rid of them, Automotive Human aims to provide the same level of both emotional and physical freedom that cars once provided but without the ecological burden that they now represent.

By using codes of car design like sleek surfaces, grills, lights... we allow people to embrace the future without having deny the past and even celebrate our legacy.

Automotive Human is the bridge to a new base language for mobility of the car-free cities that is based on self-expression and complete freedom of mouvement.

Cities around the world are starting the transition — Different concepts of future cities are emerging around the world. Paris with the 15-min city program aiming to make people go anywhere in about 15min, or NEOM The Line in Saudi Arabia, a 145km long urban line that is built around nature and stripped of any infrastructures for cars. There is a common incentive to use climate change as a segue into completely reshaping our society in order to be more ecological but also live in better conditions.

Micromobility is not a good alternative so far — Because infrastructures are not primarly made for any other transportation than cars, the only ones that exist so far are leisure that has been clumsily transformed into daily use transportation. Most mircomobility today relies on a passive position of the body as if it was carrying a box. This goes against our nature preventing us from creating a relationship of trust and comfort with the device. The experience becomes unpleasant and the devices is therefore not fit for daily use.

People express themselves through cars — For over a century, cars have grown to be a universal solution to many kind of problems whether they are pure moving but also comfort of living. As cars are based on human codes, with their front resembling faces and such, we naturally see them as an extension of ourselves and that is why there is a whole culture based around cars being our alter-ego, friend and so on. It is hard to transition from cars because our whole world is based around it, whether it is infrastructures but also our culture.

The different levels of freedom that cars provide — Cars offer many levels of freedom. The main being freedom of mouvement as thanks to infrastructures, we can basically go anywhere with them. Freedom of communication as we are able to communicate with other users of the road. Freedom of transportation, whether it is stuff but also people, linking directly to our nomad nature. And last but not least, freedom of self-expression, offering different assets allowing everyone to express themselves through.

The context was crucial in this project. The times we are living are moving so fast that it is important to know why. We have no idea how much cars mean to us, but it explains why so many people feel guilty of not wanting to get rid of theirs. As the world is shaped around cars, it is predictable that most people just can not live without them. It is the role of us designer and researchers to find a solution that is as compelling as the universe of cars to guide society seamlessly and comfortably.

Physical Freedom Ideation — In order to provide complete physical freedom, I had set myself the goal to resolve all the different levels that cars provide. Thus, I looked for a way to not be compromised by the carrying of the device, to have a intuitive relationship with it and that it would let me carry whatever/whoever I want.

Wheels Retracted Position — In order to be completely free, what better way to be your own mode of transportation? No leaving in spots and be scared of it being stolen, no having to carry it; I am it. In this video I checked if having the wheels seating on the outer corners of my legs would bother me. They didn't.

Wheels Behaviour — When deployed, the goal is to merge the device with its user and make it an intuitive experience. Inline skates is the only transport that merges motion & being but can be quite scary sometimes. I then based myself on inline skates but added another wheel to improve stability and made them move on the same axis.

Deployed Wheels Riding Experience — In this, I tried to simulate the riding experience of the shoes.

Hip Bags Tets — During the first lockdown, I cycled a lot and realised that once a bag is sitting on your hips, it is not disturbed by the mouvements of the legs. I decides to maximize that phenomenon and make bags that would sit your hips to carry whatever you want along the day.

After having defined the levels of freedom that cars provide, I set myself as a goal to provide both those levels of freedom without the ecological burden that goes with cars.

For the physical freedom ideation, I prototyped and tested out different things to come up with maximum ease of mouvement along the day of the user.

Emotional Freedom Ideation — For the semantic, it was a quite hard job. The goal was to transpose the codes of cars onto us to be the car to be both empowered and reassured that we don't need to despise the past to embrace the future. I went through many stages before finding the sight balance between car and human.

Emotional Freedom Ideation — The final version merges car codes with motorbike gear as it the most literal translation of speed in clothing. I aimed for an aesthectic that is unified and detailed merging the homogeneic fluidity of cars and the hectic universe of motorbike gear.

The Emotional Freedom was a hard and long task as the goal is to provide a language that is familiar enough for people to make the transition from cars to alternative transportation more easily and say that we don't need to deny the past to embrace the future. It can even be celebrated and used as a segue between both those periods.

Automotive Human Development — The overall suit aims to provide all the levels of freedom I mentionned earlier. It has lights on its lowest and mid level, retracting wheels allowing you to decide whether to walk or ride and familiar aesthetical codes.

Automotive Human Development — It also provides freedom of carrying whatever you want with Hip Bags serving a daily use and the Back Boot being useful in bigger carrying tasks which weight is supported by a simplified exo-skeleton in the belt of the suit.

Upcoming Alternatives — Automotive Human acts as a bridge to better alternative transportation, setting a base language for anyone to tailor it to who they are or what they do. The project being based on 4 levels of freedom can be adapted to anyone's individuality.

Upcoming Alternatives

Once both those freedoms were found, I devlopped it in 3D.

Douglas Leroy

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Royal College of Art