The Montessori Method of education, developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, is a child-centered educational approach. The method views a child as one who is naturally eager for knowledge and capable of initiating learning in a supportive, thoughtfully prepared learning environment. Additionally, Montessori Method believes in multiage groupings, uninterrupted blocks of work time, and guided choice of work activity. Furthermore, the learning materials are meticulously arranged and available for use in an aesthetically pleasing and natural looking environment.

We took all this into account when designing our desk set. Consequently, we immediately developed guiding principles that we knew that were essential for our project. We wanted our designs to incorporate adaptability, functionality, and durability. In addition to this, we wanted our product to be space efficient.

We set out to accomplish our goal of space efficiency by means of folding. We wanted our object to be capable of folding either in half or in some direction to transform from a storable object to a usable object. We began with a single sheet that would be able to unfold into a chair. Additionally, the legs of the chair would be able to fold to achieve some hieght adaptability and allow for a broader range of people to be comfortable in our chair. However, we found this idea to require too much of the user, as well as to be uncomfortable.

This lead to another foldable chair design, however, instead of a single piece of wood it was comprised of four square blocks. We quickly determined that this design had an unnecessary block of wood. Subsequently we removed one of the squares, leaving three squares to unfold into a chair. However this made our chair unsteady. To fix this problem we created leg support that could fold out of the backrest and provide stability. By doing this, it became necessary to extend the length of the backrest; the support had to be longer than the other blocks to reach the ground and remain durable. After, we began testing dimensions that would be comfortable for a young child. Once accomplished, we focused on finding a way to lock our chair in place while allowing it to continue to fold. We concluded that folding leg support hinges would work. We then created a 3-d model which we printed and tested on our half scale chair model. It worked well. After having a working half-scale model, we cnc routed a full scale model and used metal hinges in lieu of 3-d printed ones.

Concurrent to the chair designing process, we also worked on the design of the table. The table complements the chairs by allowing the chairs to be placed inside of the table, allowing for more space. Throughout the design process we new we need a compartment to house the chairs. Our first design had the desk split in half with the two halves separating with an opening placed inside the middle of the desk. Yet with much thought we decided to move away from that idea because of how hard it would be to separate the two sides. We concluded that the spaces designated for the chairs was not only the most user friendly design, but it also served as extra storage space when not being taken up by the chair.