3 award wins in total for KOKUYO Furniture products!

OSAKA, Japan, April 4, 2012 - KOKUYO Furniture Co.,Ltd.,a KOKUYO Group company(headquarters in Osaka, President: Hidekuni Kuroda), announced that the Madre lobby chair for counter services wins Germany’s Universal Design Award 2012. This is the third time that a KOKUYO product has won this particular award.

The Universal Design Award is an international design award, jointly organized by Germany’s Universal Design organization (Universal Design GmbH) and the iF Design Award Organizing Body (iF International Forum Design GmbH). It was set up in 2008 and the Award was conferred for the first time that year.
The winner of the award this time – the Madre lobby chair for counter services – went on sale in November 2011, and it was planned and developed principally with emphasis given to the perspective of both visitors to, and facility managers of, waiting areas in local government offices that offer various kinds of counter services. As we envisaged that such counter services would be visited by a wide variety of different users, we came up with some ideas to make them easier to use, such as the ease with which visitors can stand up and sit down anywhere, and making it easy to find where someone is. We also took into consideration the ease with which the layout of the chairs could be created, from a spatial perspective. For example, the fact that the chairs are designed in a compact way in terms of their overall width makes it easier to ensure that there’s sufficient space for the aisles between them. This is a universal design of lobby chair that originates from new ideas, is functional and has a design that takes account of both the mind and body of a wide variety of people.
Going forward, KOKUYO will continue to strive to create attractive products that are functional and designed to a high degree of quality.

Photo: A Madre 3-person chair/right-R type (with mini-panel elbows), polyurethane leather (color: E240)

  • Award won: Universal Design Award 2012
  • Went on sale: 1st November 2011
  • Maker’s suggested retail price (consumption tax included)
    3-person chair (bench-type, in polyurethane leather) 134,400 yen
    4-person chair (with mini-panel elbow, R-less type, in cloth) 355,950 yen

→the Madre product page(opens in new window.)

The Universal Design Award 2012

Universal Design Award 2012

The Universal Design Award is an international design award, jointly organized by Germany’s Universal Design organization (Universal Design GmbH) and the iF Design Award Organizing Body (iF International Forum Design GmbH). It was set up in 2008 and the Award was conferred for the first time that year.

The Award consists of two kinds: the Universal Design Award, which is chosen by a panel of judges, who are professional designers; and the Consumer Favorite, which is chosen by a group of 100 ordinary consumers (aged between 14 and 78).
Both awards are judged based on five evaluation criteria: that the product can be used fairly; that it can be used flexibly; that it can be used easily and intuitively; that it has a wide range of tolerance, and can be used safely and with peace of mind; and that it’s economically effective. KOKUYO’s history of winning the Universal Design Award is shown below.

  • The AGATA/D office chair won, in 2009
  • The AMOS stacking chair won, in 2010

Reference

Photo: An example of the Madre chairs in situ

KOKUYO delivered the Madre chairs to each of the ward offices in the city of Kumamoto (in Kumamoto Prefecture, south-west Japan), which had made the transition to “government-ordinance-designated city” on 1 April 2012. Kumamoto City is a local government that is very proactive in its efforts to introduce universal design, and when this ward office was being newly constructed, they were very impressed by how easy to use the Madre chairs were, as well as by the process of development that went into them.
When it came time to make the delivery, the city government chose the ‘right-R type’, with the side round seat, which makes it easy for anyone to stand and sit. We installed a total of 78 of these lobby chairs in 4 newly constructed locations.
Since the start of the Heisei period in 1989, there has been a trend towards consolidating municipalities, and KOKUYO has taken advantage of this opportunity, undertaking office refurbishment projects, such as the counter services in many local government offices. As a result, it has built up a wealth of achievements and improvement know-how. The original proposals put forward by the company make a major contribution to remarkable ease-of-use and improving the space value of public facilities.

§ Information about the Madre lobby chair for counter services
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