--- title: "Can a repairable vehicle begin with a 17-centimetre handle?" locale: "en" url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/anura-repairable-vehicle-17cm-handle-en" markdown_url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/anura-repairable-vehicle-17cm-handle-en.md" category: "ideas" tags: ["vehicle design", "repairability", "rural mobility", "maintenance"] published_at: "2026-08-23T16:14:00.000Z" author: "Léa Perrin" translation: "https://irz.fr/fr/articles/anura-vehicule-reparable-poignee-17-cm-fr.md" --- # Can a repairable vehicle begin with a 17-centimetre handle? ANURA organises its body around the distance between two handle holes. The grid makes disassembly legible, but it does not yet solve parts, diagnostics or mechanics. ANURA revolves around a handle whose two mounting holes sit 17 centimetres apart, a modest measurement that Love Björklund used to set out the entire body of his repairable rural-vehicle concept.[1](https://www.umu.se/en/umea-institute-of-design/uid26/uid26-project-gallery/show-page/anura_3578515/) Wheels and motors can wait. What emerged is a square pickup with no urge to hide its screws: ordinary tools should release the body panels, while the handle keeps turning up in different jobs, pulling a door, securing a load, signalling a turn or carrying a rear light. Elsewhere on the vehicle, a running board doubles as a loading ramp or traction board, and the headlight comes away to serve as a lantern.[1](https://www.umu.se/en/umea-institute-of-design/uid26/uid26-project-gallery/show-page/anura_3578515/) Giving the familiar promise of a “repairable car” some actual hardware is refreshing, provided we keep the limits in sight: ANURA remains a Umeå Institute of Design degree project looking towards 2040, and the published sources contain no running prototype. Its drawing lets us see how repairability might enter the design early, along with the exact point where an attractive row of exposed fasteners runs out of answers. ## Seventeen centimetres Björklund grew up in Dalarna, Sweden, in a village of 18 people, five kilometres from the nearest grocery store and beyond the reach of public transport. He writes about the way rural communities maintain roads and build internet connections for themselves; increasingly, they are developing their own energy systems as well.[1](https://www.umu.se/en/umea-institute-of-design/uid26/uid26-project-gallery/show-page/anura_3578515/) Rather than using this background merely to decorate the opening of his thesis, Björklund conducted eight semi-structured interviews with rural residents in Sweden, seven of whom drove a modern car every day. His account records stubbornly practical frustrations: vehicles override their drivers, basic functions demand connectivity, and repairs require authorised access.[1](https://www.umu.se/en/umea-institute-of-design/uid26/uid26-project-gallery/show-page/anura_3578515/) His first answer has a physical form: keep two holes the same distance apart and components begin to share a rhythm; leave the screws visible, make the panels open without a proprietary tool, and the body starts explaining how to get inside. No guessing at the entrance to a smooth, sealed skin. > Illustration: Study of the ANURA handle with two mounting holes and a central opening. The handle's two mounting points sit 17 cm apart. Björklund turns that measurement into a common grid for body panels and accessories. Credit: [Love Björklund / Umeå Institute of Design](https://www.umu.se/en/umea-institute-of-design/uid26/uid26-project-gallery/show-page/anura_3578515/). Standardising one handle would be a fairly minor exercise, but here the small part lends coherence to everything around it: mounting points recur in useful places, panels reveal what holds them on, and the person taking one apart can learn a common logic instead of hunting for a fresh set of hidden clips each time. ## Three repairs Calling something “repairable” bundles together several operations, and success in one says little about the others. To be sure, access comes first, which means seeing the fasteners, reaching the part and leaving its surroundings intact when it comes out; through exposed screws, removable panels and ordinary tools, ANURA handles that stage with unusual clarity.[1](https://www.umu.se/en/umea-institute-of-design/uid26/uid26-project-gallery/show-page/anura_3578515/) Replacement, the less photogenic problem, waits on the workbench: after removing this headlight, where would an owner find a compatible bulb, module or complete part? The light shown in the published material belongs to the concept and also works as a lantern or roof-mounted work light, yet no connector, electrical standard or parts catalogue is specified; a commenter under the Core77 article raises the same risk of quick removal followed by an impossible replacement when the component is unique.[2](https://www.core77.com/posts/145140/Transportation-Design-Student-Work-A-Repairable-Vehicle-for-Rural-Scandinavia) Authority brings another set of questions for the repairer: will a fresh part work without software pairing, will fault information remain available, and could a local workshop touch the battery, brakes or drivetrain with equipment from somewhere other than the manufacturer? ANURA promises freedom from proprietary repair locks, although its public material gives no electronic architecture, fault-finding software or powertrain details.[1](https://www.umu.se/en/umea-institute-of-design/uid26/uid26-project-gallery/show-page/anura_3578515/) The design comes down firmly in favour of access; common interfaces could eventually make replacement easier, whereas software and mechanical control remain beyond anything a 17-centimetre grid can establish. ## One part, three jobs ANURA gets much of its character from parts that refuse to stay in one place: pull away the side step and it becomes a ramp or traction board; remove a headlight and it can work as a lantern, then flip onto the roof to illuminate a job ahead. The absent light uncovers an X on its empty mount, leaving the car visibly blind in one eye.[1](https://www.umu.se/en/umea-institute-of-design/uid26/uid26-project-gallery/show-page/anura_3578515/) > Illustration: ANURA side step removed from the vehicle and used as a loading ramp. The running board is designed as a removable part that can also work as a ramp or traction board. Credit: [Love Björklund / Umeå Institute of Design](https://www.umu.se/en/umea-institute-of-design/uid26/uid26-project-gallery/show-page/anura_3578515/). Saving parts this way carries an obvious price, because packing several jobs into one component lets a single failure remove them together: lose the module, and the road light, lantern and work light vanish with it. Multipurpose hardware becomes robust only when people can obtain a simple replacement, even an imperfect substitute. The body panels leave a similar uncertainty. Björklund proposes one recyclable polymer, coloured all the way through rather than painted, so scratches can become part of ageing instead of recurring cosmetic damage.[1](https://www.umu.se/en/umea-institute-of-design/uid26/uid26-project-gallery/show-page/anura_3578515/) Sensible as the intention may be, assessing local repair, service life or real-world recycling would require a named polymer and thickness, details of the joints, and cold-weather testing; none appears in the published material. ## What ANURA shows Nothing here demonstrates that a rural vehicle imagined for 2040 could be manufactured, approved and maintained in this form, since the sources supply no running prototype, mass, cost or mechanical architecture, nor any corrosion or cold-weather tests. Two winches are clearly integrated into the front, for example, but their compatibility with standard units remains undocumented.[1](https://www.umu.se/en/umea-institute-of-design/uid26/uid26-project-gallery/show-page/anura_3578515/)[2](https://www.core77.com/posts/145140/Transportation-Design-Student-Work-A-Repairable-Vehicle-for-Rural-Scandinavia) One decision can nevertheless travel beyond the project: **design the opening before designing the repair**. When repeated fasteners are visible and understandable, people at least have a route to the problem; against the scale of an entire drivetrain this may look like a tiny victory, but plenty of products have already lost it before anything breaks. The 17-centimetre handle will never repair the vehicle, though it keeps the body from beginning with a secret. ## References 1. [Love Björklund / Umeå Institute of Design, “ANURA”, 2026 degree project](https://www.umu.se/en/umea-institute-of-design/uid26/uid26-project-gallery/show-page/anura_3578515/) 2. [Core77, “Transportation Design Student Work: A Repairable Vehicle for Rural Scandinavia”, 21 August 2026](https://www.core77.com/posts/145140/Transportation-Design-Student-Work-A-Repairable-Vehicle-for-Rural-Scandinavia)