Photo: de zeen magazine
Imagine a chair where you can insert your own drawings? Or a chair that just like a flower grows?
Why not inspire your kids to dream up and design some cool furnitures and toys? Inventing new games, toys and furnitures are often tasks that are included in biomimicry material for young children.
Milan design week is filled with interesting designs and marvelous things. Products for children are a huge market. For a designer it is about a way to make new fans from a young age."A kid that falls in love with a design product today will probably grow 'Kartell-hearted' in the future says Claudio Luti a designer. Traditionally, many of the designs exhibited at Milan week have a reputation of not being practical. However, this may not be entirely true for our demands on designs are changing.
Janine Benyus says that "For businesses, biomimicry is about bringing a new discipline - biology - to the design table." Not only does the idea to be inspired by nature result in wonderful designs it also makes the whole process more sustainable.
Today, many toys are in poor material and quality. Toys and furnitures for children are used for a short period and then either sold or thrown away. Previously a rocking horse might have been kept in the family for generations. Many design toys and furnitures are more durable, making the products more likely to be treasured for years which makes this approach more sustainable.
How can a toy compete with smartphones?
Customisable options, where children can choose to decorate pieces with their own favourite photographs or drawings is a way to attract children's attention.
Photo: de zeen magazine
A way to make more sustainable things is to make things that can grow. Big Game has created Little Big Chair which can be adjusted as the child grows.
Let your child design or draw a new chair based upon sustainable principles of a growing chair. Can you design a bicycle that grows, or a pencil that be modified to suit little fingers as well as more competent hands? A shoe or jacket. . .
