Kumho Tire has announced it has become the winner of the iF Design Award 2018 in the concept category.

Credited as being the Oscars of the design world, the award is organized by the International Forum Design of Germany. The 65-year-old award, along with the Red Dot Design Award and the IDEA Design Award, is recognized as one of the world’s top three design awards. More than 6,400 entries from 54 countries participated in this year’s competition, and winners were selected through a comprehensive screening process that looked at innovativeness, environment friendliness, quality, functionality, and convenience as well as design.

Kumho’s winning entry is the Birth On Nature (BON), a concept tire based on future-oriented technologies. As the name suggests, the airless tire was inspired by nature’s bone structure. Mimicking such atypical voronoi architecture as the shape of leaf cells and the honeycomb, it achieves the required level of structural stability and economic efficiency.

Whereas most existing airless tires are heavily affected by the load from cornering due to their monodirectional structures, the multidirectional voronoi structure adopted for the BON’s entire tread makes sure that the tire can withstand the load and shock in any driving conditions. In addition, the layout of the tread is designed to achieve maximum efficiency with minimum use of materials, and the use of high-strength materials is limited to ensure structural stability and lower weight for greater fuel economy.

“The receipt of the award is a recognition of our futuristic design and technology,” said Taekgyun Chung, Head of Kumho Tire’s R&D Division, “To prepare ourselves for future changes, we have conducted research on concept tires and we will continue to build our design capabilities and technological prowess.”