Good design is difficult. Case in point is my latest creation, the "Death Cube".
My original plan was to design a multi-purpose piece of furniture. A 50x50cm cube that could be used as a chair, a whiteboard, and ultimately stacked in various ways to support different learning intents. It would be the agile, modular and practical piece of furniture that every collaborative space needed. I even gave it a name. The "IdeaCube". Then I tried picking it up.
Who'd of thought six large pieces of laminated MDF with internal bracing and like 100 screws would be heavy? As reference point a typical large aluminium stool weighs around 5kg. This beast came in at 19KG with the added bonus of no lift/grip points and a low centre of gravity.
Now imagine a wall of these five tall being accidentally knocked over..... Suffice to say I'm not making anymore at the moment. In retrospect plastic should have been the material of choice but that requires $$$ for mould fabrication and a serious production run.
Surprisingly, the three prototypes we do have are getting use in the library (albeit in a static, non high-rise fashion). Thankfully our standing desks and revamped Periodic tables are coming along nicely.
Seemed like a good idea at the time.
