Transport Elements
The Transport Elements collection, developed between 2014 and 2016, serves as a critical exploration of the most basic definition of a vehicle: a piece of ground on top of which an individual stands still while the land scrolls underneath. This body of work is a primary component of the FOUNDATIONS series, the material outcome of Lucas Muñoz’s Master’s thesis, Bastardism, at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Through this collection, the design team analyzes the origins of human displacement, proposing a series of "Mobility Foundations" that challenge the perceived boundaries between natural resources and urban technology.
The conceptual anchor of the collection is the Rock & Roll Skateboard, a piece that replaces the conventional laminated wood deck with raw slate stone. By setting these ancient, immobile stones into motion through the integration of standard industrial skateboard gear—trucks, bearings, and polyurethane wheels—the studio creates a surrealist experience. The team highlights a functional paradox: the significant weight of the stone (70-90 kg) provides an unusual stability and inertia, offering a ride that is smoother and more linear than its traditional counterparts. This juxtaposition between geological time and contemporary urban speed is a hallmark of the studio’s "bastardist" methodology.
Technically, the collection expanded beyond stone to explore other material perspectives on mobility. The design team experimented with different "mobile grounds," creating boards from industrial and construction waste, such as heavy-duty plastics and reclaimed wood. Each piece is treated as a functional sculpture, where the structural honesty of the material dictates the final form. The studio avoided superficial styling, focusing instead on how the raw textures of slate or industrial scrap interact with the precision-engineered components of modern transport.
As a signature project in the studio's trajectory, Transport Elements has been recognized for its ability to recontextualize our relationship with the artificial environment. By taming "bastard" materials into functional vehicles, the team demonstrates that design can act as a bridge between the primal and the technological. This collection remains a definitive example of how the studio uses the "mobility foundation" to question the fundamentals of our built environment, proving that even the most static materials can be activated to navigate the modern world.