DESIGN NAME: ToyBox
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Construction Toy
INSPIRATION: The poorest group of the world’s population may be classified as The Bottom of the Pyramid, further defined as the established poverty line of people with access to an income of less than two dollar per day. Children living in these circumstances often suffer from the most challenging of conditions, from the frequent occurrence of natural and man made disasters, deficiencies in education and a basic lack of opportunities for play with little or no access to toys or other play opportunities.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: ToyBox is designed to provide the most venerable children play opportunities through the innovative re-appropriation of existing aid packaging ubiquitously used by charities to distribute relief aid to disaster hit areas in the BoP (Bottom of the Pyramid) context. ToyBox is an innovation of meaning in that, through a design-driven approach, it alters the meaning of an aid carton, from purely utilitarian and expendable cardboard box to an opportunity for engagement, play and discovery.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: ToyBox offers users the ability to reuse existing packaging as a construction toy. Once empted the box is then repurposed to provide opportunities for play and learning. Construction pieces are perforated within the box for quick and simply removal. Easily fitted together, these interlocking pieces provide children opportunities for creative play.
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: Located at UNIST (Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology), the ToyBox project originated from a course outcome to be further developed and improved over the course of 8 months.
FITS BEST INTO CATEGORY: Social Design
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PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: The prototype utilizes laser cutting as means to provide a highly functional expression of the developed concept. Manufacturing technologies for any final product are expected to include die cutting of corrugated cardboard as part of the printing and die cutting process. In this way Toy Box utilizes existing manufacturing processes and materials to limit costs.
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: Toy Box follows the dimensions of standard cardboard aid cartons. The two shown are small and medium size.
TAGS: Innovation in use, design for the BoP, Social Design
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: Innovation-in-use was used as a starting point for the ToyBox project, together with the BoP (Bottom of the Pyramid) as context for use. Following this a desk review of products and design interventions in this space was conducted. This resulted in the identification of re-use of existing packaging and cardboard cartons in providing play opportunities for children in poor and/or disaster hit regions. Ideation followed together with a series of interview was child welfare and psychology experts. These insights were then used in the definition of design criteria to help focus the development of the construction toy concept.
CHALLENGE: Of the many challenges faced during the project, the most challenging aspect of the ToyBox project was to ensure the construction pieces would both provide extensive opportunities for variation, so stimulating child creativity. And, fit together easily and securely. To achieve this we adopted a prototyping for design approach. Numerous prototypes were made from the intended corrugated cardboard material. Fit and creative opportunities were then tested through focus group workshops with children to identify improvements.
ADDED DATE: 2016-09-10 05:39:01
TEAM MEMBERS (5) : James Self (supervisor), Kido Chang, Haemin Lee, Subin Kim and Sumin Lee
IMAGE CREDITS: James Self, 2016.
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