PolyU cross-disciplinary experts providing advices regarding children’s eye and spine health
Hongkong Land representatives evaluating various chair prototypes
Project representatives at press conference showcasing project efforts and announcing upcoming directions
From the left: Dr Paul Lo, Public Design Lab Associate Lab Leader from PolyU School of Design, Dr Tulio Maximo, Assistant Professor from PolyU School of Design, Ms Karen Lee, Project Manager (Spatial) at PolyU J.C.DISI and Ms Natalie Wu, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility from Hongkong Land HOME FUND
Stimulating the use of furniture prototype in SDU environment
Scale-up Action Project with Hongkong Land HOME FUND: Furniture For Our Future
With generous support from Hongkong Land HOME FUND, J.C.DISI launched the "Furniture For Our Future" project to enhance the furniture prototype design to support children residing in sub-divided units. In March 2022, we invited furniture manufacturers to execute the design concept of PolyU School of Design’s furniture prototype. Three tender submissions were received and a tender assessment panel consisting of J.C.DISI, Hongkong Land HOME FUND and PolyU cross-disciplinary representatives and other experts were formed to evaluate the submitted design proposals based on criteria such as quality, safety and innovativeness. Hong Kong Souven Limited was eventually selected the service provider for this project, further comments and suggestions were provided to ensure that the final product tailors to the actual needs of our potential SDU beneficiaries.
Assessment panel conducting tests and evaluations against the submitted proposals.
One of the assessment panelists, Prof. Eric Yim testing the weight capacity of one of the table prototypes.
One of the assessment panelists, Dr Tulio Maximo (Left) evaluating the acoustic panel prototypes
Tender assessment panel and the three submitted design proposals
From the left: J.C.DISI representatives, Mr Ho Chung Ho, Service Supervisor at The Salvation Army, Prof. Ling Kar-kan, Director of J.C.DISI, Ms Natalie Wu, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility from Hongkong Land HOME FUND, Prof. Eric Yim, Chairman of Hong Kong Design Centre and Dr Tulio Maximo, Assistant Professor from PolyU School of Design.
After 6 months of repeated testing and refinement, J.C.DISI was able to set up a supply chain with local furniture suppliers, refine furniture prototypes into a production-ready, scalable model and arrange delivery services free-of-charge for over 2,000 4-16 SDU children that are aged between 4-16 years old, in order to help improve their physical health and learning motives, as well as their resilience and upward social mobility.
The team eventually adopted Hong Kong Souven’s design and worked towards refining the prototype between April and September 2022.
Back row (from the left): Mr HASSAN BEYGI Babak and Mr Kwan Hung Hei, PolyU Department of Biomedical Engineering, Prof. Eric Yim, Chairman of Hong Kong Design Centre, Prof. Ling Kar-kan, Director of J.C.DISI, Ms Angela Chung, Founder of Hong Kong Souven Limited, Ms Jayla Kan, Assistant CSR Manager from Hongkong Land HOME FUND, Ms Karen Lee, Project Manager (Spatial) of J.C.DISI, Dr Paul Lo, Public Design Lab Associate Lab Leader at PolyU School of Design, and J.C.DISI representatives.
Front row (from the left): Ms Natalie Wu, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility from Hongkong Land HOME FUND, and Mr Ho Chung Ho, Service Supervisor at The Salvation Army
Introduction to the SDU Furniture
This furniture set is especially designed for children aged between 4-16, who are currently residing in sub-divided units
or other forms of inadequate housings. Components include:
1. Detachable ergonomic chair set
- Upper part of the chair is detachable and can be placed on the bed for use. The supportive backrest and the cushion can provide support to the spine so that the children can maintain a proper sitting posture
2. Foldable, height-adjustable, and tiltable learning desk
- Tiltable and height-adjustable table with anti-glare desktop. It can be pulled towards the bed to shorten the distance between children and the desk for writing and reading
3. Footrests with three different heights
- Children below 140cm are recommended to use the footstep in order to maintain a good sitting posture
4. Reading partition
- It separates children from complex visual environments and reduces the adverse effects on visual development to improve concentration in children
5. Rechargeable light with adjustable brightness and colour
- Table light with up to 500 LUX level to protect children’s eye health. Can be used for up to 6-8 hours after it has been fully charged so that children’s study time can be prolonged
Cross-Sector Community Collaboration
J.C.DISI works closely with community organisations to expend our community network and extend our service to SDU families in need across districts. Prior to and during each community distribution campaign, we work with district NGOs to conduct site visits, organise briefing sessions, arrange delivery and volunteer services, as well as to collect feedbacks in order to evaluate our project impacts.
Major Collaborators
- Caritas Community Centre – Aberdeen
- Caritas Community Centre – Caine Road
- Caritas Community Centre – Kowloon
- Caritas Community Centre – Ngau Tau Kok
- Caritas Community Development Service
- Caritas Mok Cheung Sui Kun Community Centre
- Caritas Women Development Project
- Christian Action
- Christian Family Service Centre
- H.K.S.K.H. Kowloon City Children and Youth Integrated Service Centre
- H.K.S.K.H. Lady MacLehose Centre
- Jockey Club Healthy Neighbourhood Kitchen Project
- Kwun Tong Methodist Social Service
- Mongkok Kai Fong Association Chan Hing Social Services Centre
- Society for Community Organization
- St. James’ Settlement
- The Salvation Army Lung Hang Children and Youth Centre
- The Salvation Army Shamshuipo Family Support Networking Team
- The Salvation Army Yaumatei Integrated Service for Young People
- Yang Memorial Methodist Social Service
Hongkong Land "HERE2HELP" Volunteer Team
Formed by Hongkong Land colleagues, the "HERE2HELP" volunteer team is trained to support SDU families with special conditions in installing furniture sets and assessing additional requirements to further enhance the social well-being impacted by HOME FUND. The volunteers engaged in four service rounds, offering support to more than 20 families in need.
Providing All-round Support for SDU Families
Hardware Support
Pain points faced by SDU families:
- SDU families need to move around frequently and find it difficult to bring mounted furniture to their next adobe
- Insufficient or lack of appropriate furniture
Furniture intervention:
- Improve children’s sitting posture, concentration and motivation to learn by create a micro-environment in SDU that is relatively suitable for learning
- Unlike other SDU furniture/spatial improvement schemes, this SDU furniture set is highly flexible so that SDU families can easily carry it to their next adobe
Long-term impact:
-
Support children’s healthy development and wellbeing
-
Increase children’s self-efficacy, improve their learning performance and hence increase their upward mobility
-
Improve children’s sense of social well-being
Software Assistance
Pain points faced by SDU families:
- Do not know how or where to seek medical advices
- Lack of awareness/health information and often missing the golden chance to make timely diagnosis and treatments
Value-added services:
- Experts from Department of Biomedical Engineering and School of Optometry disseminating health knowledge to help children prevent/ diagnose scoliosis, hunchbacks and myopia issues
- Provide medical check-ups, case referrals, follow-up services and treatments
Long-term impacts:
- Improve SDU families’ health awareness
- Support SDU children’s health development during their prime years
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