Architecture students design cardboard panniers (+ video)

Could the sight of supermarket carrier bags dangling from a bicycle’s handlebars become a thing of the past? It will if a nifty solution to carrying groceries home devised by two architecture students in Vienna gets adopted widely – a cardboard pannier that you load up with your shopping then put on your bike.

The product, Packtasche, was designed by Philipp Moherndl and Matthias Lechner, the idea being that stores would offer it to customers at the checkout instead of shopping bags, reports the architecture and design website ArchDaily.

Quick to assemble, light in weight and recyclable, it would do the job of getting the shopping home without having to worry about whether everything you’re buying will fit in your backpack, or having to deal with the weight on your shoulder.

And of course, while many cyclists already own panniers, not everyone wants to lug them around all day when off the bike.

The designers told ArchDaily: “Due to the mass appeal of the bike, conventional cycling accessories do not fit the lifestyle of many urban cyclists. The limited transport capacity of usual bicycles makes shopping difficult and inflexible.

“People often do their shopping spontaneously, on their way home or whilst cycling in the city. Therefore we wanted to come up with a more flexible solution: a multi-use bag for bicycles, which is low priced and environmentally-friendly.”

The design incorporates a handle to make it easy to carry while off the bike, and once on it the panniers fit over a rear rack, with this video, narrated in German, showing how it works.

Die Packtasche- Die einfache Transporthilfe für Radfahrende from Matthias Lechner on Vimeo.

Lechner said: “Our main goal was to make cycling in the city even more practical and attractive than it already is. The Packtasche is our small contribution to make cycling more attractive to people and hence support sustainable urban mobility.”

The pair are currently seeking customers in the European market and are also planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign for the product.