KONSTANTEN

Abstract: There are many opportunities for designers and manu- facturers to change consumer behaviour – an important and necessary step towards a less wasteful way of living. I see a need for an example product which could empathise keeping instead of changing. An extensive deep-dive into the psychology surrounding the subject keeping was conducted. This, in combination with own reflections on how future design values could look like, was done to create a clear vision of a design lan- guage that has the potential to become timeless. Full scale prototyping and regular evaluations with the help of work- shop professionals made it possible to quickly get a sense of what’s working and what’s not. The result is called KONSTANTEN – a semi-foldable bal- cony chair that can be mass produced on a foundation of circular economy with an individual detail on each chair. The form language communicates honesty and satisfac- tion with the folding function in focus. KONSTANTEN shows different tools designers and manu- facturers can use to increase personal felt value in a prod- uct, which can lead to consumers keeping their products for a long period of time. It’s an example of how transpar- ency and honesty in production and function can create something satisfying - and something that can be trans- lated into other products and other production processes.