Press Release
Tetsuo Shibata Receives the A' Design Award for Alcyone Standing Chair in Furniture Design
The international grand jury of the 2019 - 2020 A' Design Award & Competition recognizes Tetsuo Shibata for furniture design
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 23, 2020 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Alcyone Standing Chair by Tetsuo Shibata has been granted the A' Design Award in the Furniture Design category. The award was conferred within the 2019 - 2020 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
What the A' Design Award Means
The Iron A' Design Award is awarded to good designs that meet the rigorous professional and industrial standards set by the A' Design Awards. This recognition is reserved for works that demonstrate a solid understanding of design principles and show creativity within their execution. Recipients of the Iron A' Design Award are acknowledged for their practical innovations and contributions to their respective fields, providing solutions that improve quality of life and foster positive change. These designs are a testament to the skill and dedication of their creators, showcasing their ability to address real-world challenges through thoughtful design.
Regarding Alcyone Standing Chair
For him, one important goal in coming up with the shape of this project was to simulate the human body’s quality and natural form as much as possible. He uses the human form as a metaphor for the good posture, bodily flexibility and active lifestyle everyone aspires to attain. With this product, he assists with three simple movements people perform during the course of a workday: sitting and standing, twisting the body and stretching the back over a backrest, therefore improving health and increasing productivity.
About Tetsuo Shibata
Tetsuo Shibata received BA in Industrial Design and M.Arch. in Architectural Design from UCLA and has been working as an architect since mid 1990’s in California, Minnesota, Washington DC and Maryland. He is also an avid woodworker and furniture designer and his furniture pieces were included in group shows in Santa Monica, CA, Minneapolis, MN and Minnesota Young Architects Forum where his folding plywood chair won best design in furniture category.
Award Record
With this recognition, Tetsuo Shibata is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Furniture Design Award
The A' Furniture Design Award is an international furniture competition recognizing good furniture designs by best furniture designers worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to furniture designers, product designers, industrial design studios and furniture brands from all countries. Entries typically include chairs, tables, sofas, beds, cabinets and shelves. Awarded furniture designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/furniture
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/100970
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/100970
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!100970
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/260217
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Alcyone Standing Chair
- Function
- Standing Chair
- Category
- Furniture Design
- Discipline
- Industrial Design
- Industry
- Furniture & Home
- Colors
- Light Gray, Gray, Lavender, Dark Gray and Peru
- Images
- 5
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Tetsuo Shibata
- Country
- United States of America
- Recognition
- A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2019 - 2020
- Design ID
- #100970
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- In designing this product, he was hoping to maintain a good posture, keep his legs moving and to be able to use it as a standing chair in his office and home. His challenge was to design it with a backrest that accommodates people of all height and that they can use as a regular chair at their existing work space. It was also important to him that the seat be raised and lowered and twisted sideways while being seated. This allows the users to exercise their lower body and hip muscle regularly.
- Inspiration
- Inspiration for this project comes directly from my own experience of having worked in an office for many years and the adverse effect that had on my health and body. It is clinically proven that sitting for a long period of time without moving can lead to many medical ailments such as round back, peripheral edema, and swayback. I wanted to design a new type of chair that people could use in the office and the home that would allow them to keep their bodies moving while working at their desks.
- Research
- One important goal in coming up with the shape of this project was to simulate the quality and natural form of the human body as much as possible and to use the seat’s vertical and lateral movement as well as its performance to address some of the physical problems we all have while working at a desk. Much of my research involved talking to physical therapists, reading newspaper articles on health and science and books on both metals and plastics, and visiting local metal fabrication shops.
- Challenge
- The hardest part of the design process was developing a mechanism that would allow the seat to move up and down for height adjustment. I did many detailed sketches showing the weight transfer path from the seat to flexible prongs to steel cable to conduits and to the curving metal frame. A three inch scale model I built was extremely useful in designing the details of this mechanism as well as the shape of the metal frame itself and in incorporating them both functionally and aesthetically.
- Realization and Technology
- Because the seat of this product is in somewhat of an upright position, the challenge was to design the frame to support it and to make it height adjustable. The idea of using a twisting metal frame came to me gradually after I experimented with the bent basswood and found it difficult to bend without compromising its structural integrity. The sinuous curve of the metal base frame came out of the need to have enough space for a person to sit and stand and to hold the seat.
- Operation and Interaction
- The main advantage of this product is that it can be used both as a standing chair by raising the seat and as a conventional chair by lowering the seat. This is possible due to the use of high memory foam inside the removable cushion. The middle portion of the seat shell is rounded to give extra foam depth so that when a person lowers the seat to sit down, the compressed foam creates their own individualized seat. To move it, simply tilt it backward until castors engage and push forward.
- Project Duration and Location
- I have worked at nights and on weekends on the design, a scale model, and a full-scale mock-up of this project since August 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland, finishing it in October 2019. Computer rendering of this project was started in late October 2019 and finished in late January 2020 in Baltimore.
- Specifications
- Frame width at widest portion of base is 813 mm. Frame width at lower back is 432 mm. Frame depth at base from ankle section to back of base is 559 mm. Frame depth from ankle section to back of push bar is 483 mm. Height of frame is 1067 mm. Width of seat is 508 mm. Width of backrest at its widest is 343 mm. Height from bottom of seat to top of backrest is 584 mm. Lowest variable seat height at center of seat is 584 mm. Highest variable seat height at center of seat is 864 mm.
- Keywords
- sit, stand, bend, twist, stretch
