ARMOB
Multi-functional furniture
Bachelor's final project (Industrial design)
Armob is an eco-friendly alternative of furniture by merging responsible production methods and materials, providing different multifunctional designs for a cosy stay in temporary residences.
Place and Year of execution
Bogota-Colombia, 2017.
MY ROLE
User research and theoric background
Ideation, exploration and modelling
Prototyping and real user testing
WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM?
Culturally, in third developed countries, the purchase decision is mainly influenced by the price of products rather than their quality. The furniture industry makes part of it, where individuals with lower incomes prefer to purchase affordable products by knowing that they will need to dispose of them after a period of time. Besides the environmental impact, the ergonomic backlash is also related to a serious case, which leads to both discomfort and health problems.
TO WHOM IS THIS FOR?
Low-income niche group like students, refugees, social housing residents and government-subsidized groups, who prefer to opt for the cheapest and practical option in the market.
RESEARCH
We focused on foreign students and their behaviours by inquiring their living style and the furniture life cycle that they purchase.
They prefer adapting the cheapest and lightest products in their living space until their semester is over. Disposing or giving the furniture away were their main options when they leave their places.
INSIGHTS
Uncomfortable positions adopted due to the incompatibility or lack of furniture
Disposing the furniture was the first option before leaving the place
Any flat surface was implemented as working space, either in the room or in a common space
Shelves and organizers were commonly the last items on their shopping list but were highly necessary or their everydayness
GOALS
Creating a fast, affordable, multifunctional and ergonomic furnishing option
Prioritise the smart use of material and resources in the production process
Promoting a new industrial environmental friendly production, based on regulated demand
IDEATION & TESTING
Modularity, functionality, accessibility and easy assemble are the main cores during the ideation. The concepts were thought for a more controlled and personalizable production, by implementing current technology such as CNC processes that users can access easily in an urban context. Environmental-friendly materials do also play an important role since the probability of disposing of product after its use is high enough. Materials such as Cardboard and Medium Density Fibers (MDF) were taken as the main resources for the design of the product.
Experimentation with the material
Ideation of multifunctional furniture
PROTOTYPING
After verifying what was working with our first proposals and what could be improved, the testing part suggested that most of the bending parts were considered difficult and less intuitive to assemble. The number of parts did also play a factor to confuse and hindrance the order in which pieces must be joint. Later, a second ideation and prototypation phase was proceeded to create new results that fulfil the basic user's necessities and project's objectives.
Scaled models were tested first to receive feedback from participants. The reduction of pieces to assemble improved the intuitive of joining them and the structural resistance.
OUTCOMES
The final design requires only 3 MDF boards (130 x 90 cm) to produce both chair and desk, with only a material's waste of 9%. The new proposal also offers multifunctionality to change its appearance and give additional saving space by using the same components, most importantly, it does not require tools or additional elements to join the components.
WHAT COMES NEXT?
To provide accessibility to the cutting pattern, it was intended to distribute the design through digital media; thus, the reduction of CO2 emissions of transportation and production of the product will be drastically reduced from the products environmental print. Therefore, the design of software that users can download to access the patterns will guarantee that the pieces and material used for its production will be strategically placed to take full advantage of the area and reduce its waste.
