Sempoa Puhketool by New Elegant Co., Ltd. is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2025 Hõbeauhind A' Design Award in Mööblidisain Competition Category.
HõbeMööbel· 2025
Sempoa Puhketool
Client: New Elegant Co., Ltd.
Hõbeauhind A' Design Award Winner in Mööbel Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #164649The Design
About Sempoa Puhketool
Sempoa tool ühendab traditsioonilise inspiratsiooni kaasaegse funktsionaalsusega. Jaapani Soroban arvelauast inspireeritud tool omab liikuvate kuulidega seljatugi, mis pakub nii taktiilset kogemust kui ka pehmet massaažiefekti. Roostevabast terasest vardatele kinnitatud ja painduvate paindpuidust raamidega hoitavad kuulid liiguvad koos kasutaja kehaga. Ristuvate massiivsest puidust laudadest valmistatud disain tasakaalustab struktureeritud esteetikat vastupidavusega, tagades stabiilsuse, stiilsuse ja kutsudes esile kasutaja interaktsiooni.
The Recognition
About the Hõbeauhind A' Design Award
Sempoa Puhketool on Hõbeauhinna A' Design Award võitja, ülimalt prestiižikas tunnustus, mis antakse tipptasemel, suurepärastele ja muljetavaldavatele disainidele. Hõbevõitjad on ülimalt säravad ja erakordselt loovad tööd, mis illustreerivad oma disainerite silmapaistvat kogemust, annet ja teravmeelsust. Sempoa Puhketool peaks olema imeline, eeskujulik töö, mis on märkimisväärselt professionaalne ja sügavalt uuenduslik. See Hõbeauhinna A' Design Award võidudisain on väga tähelepanuväärne, imetletud leiutis, mis toob kasu ning nihutab kunsti, teaduse, disaini ja tehnoloogia piire. Sempoa Puhketool on laialdaselt kadestatud looming, mis äratab soove, tekitab positiivseid tundeid ning süütab hämmastust ja imestust.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- For a long period of time, Abacus has been an important part of life of businessman, employees, even students. This simple yet useful hand operated tool becomes a symbol of hardworking people. In modern days, where digital calculator has been embedded inside our most important tool-smartphone, an abacus is slowly being forgotten. An idea emerges repurposing an abacus in our daily life as a reminder of our hard works while still physically functional giving relaxation massage sensation for the user.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Width: 720 mm
Depth: 820 mm
Height: 800 mm
Seat Height: 440 mm
Seat Depth: 510 mm - Tags
- Chair, Life, Work, Massage, Abacus, Wood, Joinery
- Production Technology
- The expectation to create the most favorite piece of furniture in our living room, build quality is the priority allowing the user to rely on it for decades. With that mindset, straight solid rubberwood is decided for its well-known balance between strength, lightweight and cost. The curved shapes are realized from a bentwood forming the backrest and seat frames that wraps around the user’s body. The large area of the seat allows the user to sit cross-legged, thus velvet fabric is chosen to give a gentle touch to the skin, maximizing comforts.
- Design Challenge
- From the beginning of research, blending an abacus in a piece of furniture, the inorganic shape of the abacus reduces the possibility of the chair shape exploration. As ergonomic is a crucial part in designing a chair, the shape cannot be too rigid but on the other hand it becomes irrelevant to the abacus if the chair is too organic. Second hurdle is finding the balance thickness of the bentwood rails of the abacus. It must be thin enough to flex, yet strong enough to support the user’s body while holding all the stainless-steel rods. The frame also required to have spaces for the rails to slide smoothly without affecting the overall rigidity.
- Research
- Creating a product that will be cherished by the user is the wish of all designers and producers. Providing a solution in the product that also connects to the user’s heart, the research focused on blending the historical elements of abacus as an aesthetic feature and a concrete function of the whole product. Thus, by reinventing abacus as a flexible backrest, not only it acts as a piece of art in the living room, but also provides a soothing massage effect for the user. It combines a cultural element with practical benefits, creating a chair that feels both familiar and innovative.
- Inspiration
- In this era, most of our daily activity is sitting. Either it is working, meeting, eating or even relaxing. Twelve hours on average sitting on the same spot happened to many people especially those who works from their home. Inspired by wooden massage lumbar support used by many taxi drivers in Vietnam, the idea is to implement wooden massage beads built into a lounge chair for people who works tirelessly and relax infinitely in front of screens all day long.
- Project Duration
- The project was designed and developed in Ho Chi Minh from August 2023 until August 2024.
- Operation Flow
- Crafting Sempoa chair focused on touches between users’ body and the edges of the beads. Knowing the fact that responses to sharp edges are different for every person, the rails of the abacus are made of flexible thin bentwood to be able to adapt to the user’s rear body shape. The stainless-steel rods act as the bones of the bentwood rails giving strength to support the user’s weight. Not only that, the abacus horizontal direction combined with the stainless steel rods, permit the beads to slide and spin freely, allowing the user to move around unbound while sitting.
- Team Members
- Director: Wei-Liang Chou
Designer: Aditya Cipta Sugandha - Image Credits
- Aditya Cipta Sugandha, 2024.
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