Group project at Universidad Politécnica de València (UPV)
Responsibilities: Interviews, User Research, Ideation, Prototyping, Testing
Project Description:
The following project was formed as part of the European Project Semester in Autumn 2017 at the Universitat Politècnica de València. A team of eleven students from Europe and the USA worked together to designed, analyze and fabricate a market- ready prototype of three furniture designs intended for children. All students are from different universities with diverse specialties which helped to accomplish the goals of the project and the course.
The final product line consists of three unisex furniture intended for children in the age span of 3-6 years. The product line is focusing on the fun in the furniture and gives possibilities for the child to be explorative. They are all multifunctional to enable functions that meets both parents and children's needs.
Products:
Rock & Block is a rocking horse with modular cushions which focuses on creative action (see figure 19). Rock & Block consists of a bent piece of a wood structure with cushions inside. The children can play and rock on it alone or use it with a friend as a seesaw. The height of the rocking horse is 50 cm, the length is 80 cm and the width is 40 cm. Rock & Block helps the child to learn how to hold their balance by rocking on it. The rocking horse can be turned upside down and be transformed into a climbing mountain which further acts to improve the child's motor skills.
Turn & Learn is a creativity desk where the children can perform art and crafts. The furniture focuses on the creativity of the child. Turn & Learn is multifunctional with a rotatable desk. In its closed state, the desk can be used as a blackboard and the child can draw on it with white chalk pens. When turned 90 degrees, the easel transforms into a desk with a storage function for drawings, crayons or other things children need for their arts and crafts. Using blackboard instead of white board prevents the children from using toxic markers.
Slide & Hide is an expandable stool that can be transformed into a playhouse (see figure 15). It is intended for children from 3-6 years and fits about 1-3 children, depending on the age. Slide & Hide can be transformed into a playhouse easily through mechanism that are built into the walls of the stool. When expanded, the playhouse is three times the size of the original stool. The base increases from 70 cm to 1,50 m in width and the fabric tent goes up to 1,10 m.
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