“Generative design is when you state the goals of your problem and have the computer create design iterations for you," said Jordan Brandt, Autodesk's resident futurist and a pioneer of the generative design method, when we spoke to him last year. Where a designer might traditionally imagine how a chair, motorcycle, or building might look and then build a prototype herself, generative design places the job of prototyping into the hands of a computer algorithm (hence generative design's other name: algorithmic design). The Light Rider's funky form is the result of a technique called generative design, an emerging design field that touches fields from architecture to product design. Look closely and you can see the bike’s mechanics peeking through the gaps in its frame, like organs through a ribcage. The Light Rider achieves that balance with a 3-D printed, aluminum-alloy frame that resembles a web of metallic bones. “We wanted it to be really silent and lightweight, like a bicycle but with the speed and stability of a motorbike,” explains Stefanus Stahl, a designer at APWorks, the German Airbus subsidiary responsible for the motorcycle. To be fair, the Light Rider wasn’t designed like your typical motorcycle. For comparison, a BMW GS tips the scales at around 550 pounds. The skeletal motorbike weighs just 77 pounds. The Light Rider is meant to be ridden, but you could probably carry it if you really wanted to.
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