Conceptual Design of Foldable and Stackable Furniture for Preschool Classrooms

Abstract

Currently, school furniture used in preschool classrooms counts with a solid and functional design that has stayed practically invariant for the last 20 years, although it does not invite children to interact much with it. This furniture fills a great part of the classroom’s functional space, and it is normally destined to a specific use, which avoids that it was used at other moments of the day, or in other activity zones. Moreover, last tendencies relative to preschool classroom’s space organization demand more flexible layouts that allow a quick adaptation, which is impossible with traditional furniture. This work shows the result of the conceptual design of a new line of modular, foldable and stackable preschool furniture, destined for its use indoors in schools, kindergartens, or even at home, composed by a highchair, a desk and a chair. The design has been made following ergonomic, functional and easiness of assembly criteria, as well as the ones of health and safety. Finally, optimal materials have been selected, and the manufacturing cost of each product has been studied, in order to evaluate its competiveness.