TUPA
One plywood piece converts from rocking crib to table, chairs and toy box
A Multi-Functional baby product that lessens the strain on new families.
- Key fact
- 710 EURProjectedpotential saving for a family
- Team
- 8 master students
- Disciplines
- Architecture · Design · Design Engineering · Mechanical Wood Engineering · Product Design · User Experience Design
What happened, step by step.
Challenge
UPM had developed Grada plywood, which forms stronger, more durable bonds. The brief: create a product that opens new opportunities for the material while reducing packaging waste.
What the team learned
Finland's Kela maternity package, a starter kit for expecting families, pointed the team to a key factor for growing families: financial hardship.
What they built
TUPA is a multifunctional plywood baby product. It converts into an infant bed with a rocking crib, a table, chairs, a stepping stool or a toy box, so one piece serves a child for a long time.
Results
- Projectedthe combined furniture can save a family up to 710 EUR.
Full project text
The team’s original texts from the project page.
A wooden multi-functional combination of furniture for the new-born and toddler to cut down the financial weight that comes along with having children as they can be used for a long time.
Challenge
UPM Grada ™ Plywood was newly developed which implies materials and processes that allow for the production of more durable and stronger bonds in plywood. For this technology, the challenge was to create a product that opens up new opportunities while solving packaging waste to start the need-finding process.
Solution
Inspired by the social security Kela maternity package in Finland, where expecting families receive a starter package for the mom and the baby (i.e. baby clothes, formula, diapers, breastfeeding equipment), it showed that a prominent factor in growing families is the financial hardship. The creation of TUPA, a multi-functional baby product allows to be turned into an infant/baby bed with a rocking crib, a table, chairs, and stepping stool or a toy box.
Impact
Overall, the Tupa can save families up to 710 EUR (~86,000 JPY) with its multiple combination of furniture. By providing a multi-functional baby product with the help of UPM’s new technology, the design team hopes to ease the financial weight placed on new families so that they can better enjoy life’s most precious package.
Watch the team’s pitch.
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From the field to the prototype.
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Who built it.
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Julia Pettersson Hakava
Architecture
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Tuomas Sahramaa
Product design
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Heikki Soininen
Mechanical Wood Engineering
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Paul Warrunthorn Kittiwongsunthorn
User Experience Design
Haruna Kawashima
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Kento Misawa
Design
Rumi Yoshida
Mamiko Nagao
Design Engineering Management