The Luxury Of Comfortable Desks And Chairs

Measuring existing school furniture to get some dimensions for design.

Imagine school with no desks or chairs. Imagine school with just a cement floor to sit upon for the school day, not even a rug to sit upon. In some third world countries, like Uganda, school are made from materials available, and there is no furniture for students to use. They sit on the cold or hot cement floor for the entire school day, six hours or more. Imagine trying to learn a new language or how to multiply and divide, or where other countries are located, from that hard floor. Even writing proves difficult, balancing a slate or notebook on your lap and leaning over to see the words that  you are writing.

Doug VanderValk and Ian Kuklenski became aware of the hardships endured by students in Uganda and decided to do something about it. Their goal was to make attending school much more comfortable and focused on beginning their project with five orphanages. So, they formed UNLOCKED: PLYWOOD CHILDREN'S FURNITURE.



These young men designed school furniture that is easy to construct and assemble, so the pieces can fit in a flat box that can be carried by parcel post. They made their line of furniture available for sale to American parents for their own children. Now, here's what happens: A customer looks through the products, chooses one and pays for it, generally a desk and chair. The pieces are made and shipped to the customer, who has to assemble it, which takes less than five minutes. At the same time, the same pieces are made in Uganda and shipped on a truck bed to a school in need, 60 flat-packed pieces fitting on the truck bed. When the shipment arrives, the desks and chairs are easily assembled for use by students.

The basic design that was eventually used.

Besides wanting to make students more comfortable, why this project? Certainly, the young men had noticed how uncomfortable sitting on the floor for hours could be. Doug explained, "We believe providing an environment in which to learn comfortably can drastically aid the growth and education of young people." In addition, there were a large number of charitable organizations are already working to provide such school supplies as pencils. books, and school uniforms, and they felt that the issue of comfortable furniture had been ignored. It did take some amount of design work to keep the prices of the supplies and transport down, as well. Ultimately, they hope to become a source of durable goods in partnership with communities in need.

One of the desks in use in the US.

Thanks for information from this article on Pollination Project: https://thepollinationproject.org/grants-awarded/doug-vandervalk-unlocked-furniture-for-children-in-need/; this article from Unlocked: http://www.unlockedfurniture.org/about.html; and the above link.

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