STORY:
Practicality, innovation and aesthetics meld into one at London's Design Museum, where designers are vying to win the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year 2009.  Among the entries is the Aquaduct bicycle.

It looks like an ordinary bike on the outside, with a large container on the back and one on the front fixed to the handlebars. But inside there are complex mechanics. The Aquaduct bike purifies water as it is peddled. The American company IDEO designed the bike. They envision people in rural Africa being able to use the bike to cycle to a water source, often several miles away from their village. And, as they peddle the long journey home, the water stored in a container on the back of the bike is pushed through a purifier and then stored in the plastic box on the front of the bike ready for safe drinking.

IDEO hopes to refine its concept to make it commercially viable for distribution across the developing world. Nina Due (pronounced: Dew-Ay) says more designers are entering the competition by incorporating practicality to their imaginative creations.

[Nina Due, Design Museum Curator]:
"Certainly with the Aquaduct  I think it is a great example of looking at very practical and needy issues and coming up with simple solutions.”

Other entrants include the Armadillo Vet and Face Mask, made by Norway's Kode Design. They wanted to create a suit for land mine clearers that is safer and more comfortable than ones traditionally worn. The face mask in particular has undergone a complete revamp, weighing fifty percent less and with a valve system that makes it easier to breath. Improving comfort and will improve concentration in the dangerous task of de-mining.

[Nina Due, Design Museum Curator]:
"This one has much better ventilation. It also has some goggles which are fitted much closer to the eyes, which therefore protect the eyes much better. The vest has been created to almost be a continuation of the mask, so the neck piece sort of overlaps the mask  itself, which makes it, when you crouch down, much more safe as well.”

Eco-friendly is the buzz word these days, and the world of design is as immersed in green ideas as anyone else. Norway's Th!nk City car, which is one hundred percent electric and can be completely recycled, is a contender for an award. Another "green" entry is a weird futuristic looking love-seat chair, made of recycled newspapers.

[Nina Due, Design Museum Curator]:
"I think the green issue within design has come a very long way. Even going back ten years we associated recycle design, for example, with cut off beer bottles turned into wine glasses and so forth, which often made it a very simplistic approach to what green design could be. Nowadays it is much more sophisticated.”

Up for best product award is the Senz umbrella from The Netherlands. It is the first aerodynamic umbrella in the world and promises never to turn itself inside out in strong winds. It has a longer tail at the back giving it not only the aerodynamic aspect, but also allowing the user to better see out the shorter front.

The final winner of the Brit Insurance Design Awards will be announced on March 18.