Crane manufacturer Linden Comansa launched its CUBE cabin at the end of 2017. It was designed by the Spanish industrial design studio BigD, who submitted it to the iF awards. Its commitment to improve the working conditions of the crane operator was the winner in the section on vehicles and automotive, which was the category which came closest to a fit with tower cranes. The award was presented at a ceremony in Munich in March.
The award represents the icing on the cake of a project that took almost two years to complete. According to Alberto Munárriz, Linden Comansa’s general manager, "the iF award recognizes the great work of BigD, who knew how to put themselves on the shoes of a crane operator to offer him a pleasant work space with the greatest possible comfort. The CUBE cab offers an innovative aesthetic design, very different from what the market has offered so far, and includes all of the technical requirements that we needed to add to the cabin as a fundamental part of the crane".
"A prestigious award, if it is given by a totally independent body, is a double prize," says Adrián Larripa, CEO of BigD. "What the jury appreciated was not only the purely aesthetic appearance, but the whole project. The CUBE cab is a small portion of a tower crane, but it is its nerve centre in the handling and control of the loads.
“We carried out a comprehensive analysis of the experience of the crane operator to create a completely user-centred cab design which provides huge comfort and increases the cab’s capacity to implement new crane functions that could arise for future needs. And we were able to achieve these improvements within a reasonable impact on the cost of the cab."
“Rather than confront problems in a linear fashion – the most common in the engineering field – we used a more orbital process, in which many options are explored, rapid prototypes and tests are carried out and the option with better results is chosen. It is a process of continuous improvement that, in this case, resulted in a very innovative cabin in practical aspects as well as in aesthetics and in the comfort of the user."
