W2W, Greyfox & Perch

Collaborative furniture design competition

The Brief;

- Design a piece of furniture that improves natural human interactions in the working/learning space

- Fits within a circular economy model

The Concept;

Many concepts around this brief and similar products take a modular design approach however, our concept took a research led approach around psychology and ergonomics and how the way we sit and our body language, which could be influenced by the design of the furniture, may affect our ability to communicate effectively with others.

With our focus on the psychological aspect of collaborative working I undertook research into non-verbal communication and how our body language comes across to others and how this can affect working together.

For example; if a group were presenting ideas to each other and someone was to begin clasping their hands it would come across as they are bored of those speaking, which may lead to the speaker finishing prematurely and not effectively communicating what they have to say.

Ideation

Inspiration was taken from products that are already used to improve a users posture, such as gym equipment like bosu balls.

The product was designed with the idea of it being a single product that could be bought as many times as needed by the consumer and used together, in a group, or could be brought to meeting tables

The product began to develop into something we could imagine fitting into an office or learning space environment however it did not meet our requirement to fit within a circular economy model and so the product needed to be developed

The product took on a slotted design that allowed for the stool to be manufactured from sheet materials, the slotted nature of the product also offered the possibility that the CAD files could be purchased and manufactured closer to the consumer using local or recycled material

Final outcome;