Drawing inspiration from the frozen sucker, a Chinese candy bar, designer Jiang Qian has come up with an innovative umbrella named “Ice-cycle” that uses ice as fabric to protect you from the heat of the sun. Finished in a metal frame and ice top, the Ice-cycle integrates a terminal device, a special kind of refrigerator, in each ice-terminal to freeze the water to be used as umbrella fabric. When the ice top melts, you may hold the handle to refashion a new fabric for the Ice-cycle. The Ice-cycle is ideal to beat the heat of the sunshine on the sandy beaches. Though the more you use it in cold places, the longer the life of the umbrella will be.
[Cheers Jiang]
Like many new designs this one isn’t practical - and that’s okay. Unfortunately, this one scores a -4 on the practical meter.
In fact, this seems more like a joke to me, but it looks like someone spent some time on it.
And the umbrealla is going to be heavy!