The Pressalit Care Arm rest (or "support arm") is a product usually mounted next to a toilet to help elderly, handicapped, or injured/recovering patients get on and off the toilet. It was designed 3-4 years ago at Pressalit D&D in Denmark. I was responsible for design, engineering, sourcing and implementing i production. I did have a very skilled industrial designer and an awesome technician in the work shop to help me. The goal of the project was to balance visual/tactile design with cost and durability (cleaning and strength). The product replaced an icon of Pressalit: the hugely succesful old arm rest, designed by the founder and mastermind of Pressalit Care, Architect Hanne Rasmussen, 20 years earlier! Here is a picture of the old design:
CONCLUSION
Obvously, a lot of improvements could be made to this design, when evaluating it towards Life´s Principles. Most important of these to me are the materials of the product. Aluminium is a very good example of a material that is viewed by many people in industry to be environmentally friendly, because it can be recycled, but studies have shown that it has to be recycled 20 times before the energy consumption from the virgin production is off-set!
Another interesting recommendations that came out of this is to use the product and the environment in which it is installed to create a kind of community. Considering the product more as a full service (advice, installation, service, de-installation and take back) given to people when they need the product for a period of time, rather than a product to be sold and then walk away with the profit.
All in all, I look forward to using these principles in my design work in the future!
/Christian
Obvously, a lot of improvements could be made to this design, when evaluating it towards Life´s Principles. Most important of these to me are the materials of the product. Aluminium is a very good example of a material that is viewed by many people in industry to be environmentally friendly, because it can be recycled, but studies have shown that it has to be recycled 20 times before the energy consumption from the virgin production is off-set!
Another interesting recommendations that came out of this is to use the product and the environment in which it is installed to create a kind of community. Considering the product more as a full service (advice, installation, service, de-installation and take back) given to people when they need the product for a period of time, rather than a product to be sold and then walk away with the profit.
All in all, I look forward to using these principles in my design work in the future!
/Christian