AWARD YEAR
2021
CATEGORY
Community
GOALS
Good Health & Well-being, Sustainable Cities & Communities
KEYWORDS
schools, covid-19, coronavirus, social distance
COUNTRY
United Kingdom
DESIGNED BY
Unit Fabrications
WEBSITE
https://www.springwise.com/innovation/education/unit-fabrication-social-distancing-furniture-school
Mobile screens
Colourful screens for social distancing in schools
UK furniture design and fabrication firm UNIT Fabrications has developed a series of colourful, mobile screens.
The screens were initially created as a special request by a local primary school, which needed a way to divide its existing space without making the school feel like a prison. UNIT came up with the idea for colourful plywood screens. The screens are low enough to allow teachers to see over them and are mounted on castors to make them easy to move around.
UNIT Fabrications director Toby Hadden explains that “We were determined to design something that didn’t pull from the material language of a pandemic. We pushed to use a high-quality birch plywood to create solutions that had a warmth and material permanence.” In addition to the screens, UNIT has also designed vinyl wayfinding markings to use on floors and walls in the same colour palette.