When you get a broken arm or leg, one of the things that you can do to help it heal is to put the limb in a cast. They all look almost the same with their usual white color and with the material made from cement. The only thing you can do to make it look different is to have your friends sign it or even get someone to put some graffiti-like art on it so you have something nice to look at while recovering (and while it’s itching like crazy). What if there was a more interesting-looking and more sustainable option to give people a better cast experience?
Designer: California College of the Arts
An award-winning concept called AXO is aiming to create a cast that actually looks more like a fashion statement than a medical emergency. More importantly, it’s something that is easy to put on, can still make your skin breathe (as compared to the usual cement cast), and is made from recyclable materials. The designers are also looking at this product to make the production of medical casts using sustainable methods.
From the concept renders, AXO looks like something you would wear to the MET Gala or a fashion shoot rather than a medical solution to your broken bones. The concept also aims to reduce the need for further check-ups and may even avoid further damage to tissue, muscle, or bone. How they will be able to do all that is something that they did not specify in their concept description. There’s also no mention of materials but that may be understandable if they’re still in the development stage.
Based on the photos and videos, the material looks to be some sort of synthetic rubber although they did mention recyclable materials. It would be interesting to learn more about AXO, especially the medical side as to how this can be better than the current medical casts available in the market.
