2020
This was a group project made as a collaboration between students from the School of Design and students from Faculty of Forestry.
The project started with a focus group of kindergarten teachers that expressed their thoughts on currently available kindergarten furniture. The conclusion of this conversation was that the new product needs to be multifunctional, as kindergartens operate with limited amount of room. The product also needed to be collapsable - foldable - mountable.
The teachers expressed that this design needs to encourage the development of kids's didactics and fine motor skills while also being stable, solid and capable of enduring a lot of stress. It was indicated that the furniture needs to be able to adapt to the space and at the same time stay agile enough to remain easily moveable.
The base of the design are flexible modules created from a series a sticks connected by straps. These are then shaped by a rigid form placed at the ends of the module. The stiffeners effectively turn the modules into usable products.
The stick rolls are partly fastened into place by friction and partly by having a screwable element on some parts of the assembly. This process is conceived as an opportunity to practice fine motor skills for children, but also as an ability to combine different modules and stiffeners, in order to obtain products of different dimensions - suitable for different ages of children. Likewise, it is this modularity of the entire range that allows products to be stored and easily stored so that the space can be better used when the furniture is not in use.
The product range consist of benches, tables that double as storage and bridges/balance boards. Depending on the colour of the strap connecting the rods, created pieces correspond to the recommended furniture sizes for certain age groups.
The benches can be both customised depending on the flexible module and the rigid ends, giving a number of different designs children can experiment with.
The tables, shaped as cylinders double as fillable volumes other toys can be put in.
Finally, the bridges can be a fun activity for kindergarten spaces, and when turned upside down can serve as entertaining balance boards.
When the modules are not secured into a particular shape, they can adopt new functions. For example, the rolls can be placed on the wall serving as a display board, or they can be transformed into a swing by simply looping rope through the provided rings.
Logo representing the product assortment
