Tokyo-based H220430, design firm was commissioned by a Japanese kindergarten to come up with a chair for its toddlers. Director of the firm, Satoshi Itasaki came up with a piece of furniture that looks playful and supports hands-on interaction called the Owl Chair.
Itasaka in his interview on the furniture said, “It was very interesting to see the kids who participated in the research building the chairs by trial and error.” He worked it up on the concept that the children’s seat would allow them to be creative. He went on to say, “We prepared several kinds of differently shaped prototypes and selected the most balanced with respect to the following: ease-to-assemble, intensity, productivity, economic efficiency, and design.”
The seat is made using Ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) which provided the most ideal material qualities, that is, the soft and flexible polymer which behaves like foam-rubber. This rubber material is pretty easy to manipulate. The product gets its name from the peculiar shape which the kids themselves thought it resembled to that of an owl. Before you fold it, the kids saw the chair as an owl with its wings spread out.
The chair is at present still in a prototype stage with flat-packed and no-tools required Owl Chair. It is expected to be in production anytime soon.
