AIRONE
Airone is an outdoor canopy that folds completely parallel to the ground. A four-bar linkage drives the movement, so the structure goes from open shelter to compact form in one motion. It is built in recycled aluminum and AISI 316 marine steel. One tool repairs it.
The wind decides the shape before taste does.
Traditional canopies act like sails. The four-bar linkage folds the structure parallel to the ground, so the wind finds no surface to push.
Every component uses the same hex head as the multifunction crank. The tool that opens the canopy also disassembles it. No toolbox.
Fitting a 350cm canopy into a car trunk required rethinking the folding geometry from scratch. Integrated 360° wheels allow single-person transport without disassembly.
Every material was chosen for its full lifecycle: recycled aluminum, AISI 316 marine steel, post-consumer polypropylene. All three can be separated and recycled at the end.
Form follows the heron. Function follows the mechanism.
Biomimetic form
The curvature of the main arm is not decorative: it is the direct result of the four-bar kinematic constraint.
Single degree of freedom
One crank opens everything. A single input means fewer things to get wrong, and nothing to assemble in the right order.
Identity through engineering
The identity follows the object. Logo and pictogram are drawn from the kinematic geometry of the mechanism.
The mechanism is the form. It is visible every time the canopy opens.
"The canopy has to disappear when it is closed. That is the whole brief, and the mechanism is the answer to it."
2024
Poggesi
