Bicycles of the Future

delving into the minds of two visionary bike designers

Client: BBC World Service / BBC Sounds

Brief: Bicycles made from wood? Meet visionary bike designers Paul Harder Cohen and Mette Walsted

Tandem process: Project managed the recording and filming of this hybrid audio and video production in Copenhagen, Denmark. Working alongside a local Danish video crew who Tandem hired, we also commissioned a bespoke soundtrack from one of our associate composers and delivered a suite of content to the World Service that covered on air and digital.

Project

Top endurance cyclist Lee Craigie travelled to Denmark to meet cutting edge bicycle designers Paul Harder Cohen and Mette Walsted, who craft bikes from a material that’s been around for millions of years: wood.

Paul and Mette took Lee through their creative process in their buzzing dockside studio workshop in Copenhagen, as they design and construct their bike frames from a combination of ash and walnut. Each bike takes over two months to make and each one is unique thanks to the organic nature of the wood they are crafted from. 

As well as getting involved in the creation of a new bicycle, Lee found out about ways that form and function intersect, and hopped into the saddle to reflect on how this design gives a highly distinctive feeling of interaction between rider and machine. 

Building on our research brief, we used our signature approach of unscripted recording, allowing for a warm and natural delivery, supported with our exacting editing standards.

The programme remains as a podcast on BBC Sounds and the BBC World Service.