Sembli Collective, a group of Pratt Industrial and Graphic Design students, are teaming up with Kids of Kathmandu to design desks for use in newly built schools in Nepal that were previously destroyed in the devastating 2015 earthquake. 

Fellow student Selena Liu and I teamed up to design floor desks for the K-3 age range. Our challenge was to design a desk that could be flat packed, made of universally available materials, and could provide a flexible classroom environment. 

We decided to design 2 different desks, a small and large variation of the same initial design. 

We traveled with the group to Nepal in June. In Kathmandu, we worked with local fabricators to manufacture prototypes of our designs. There were various obstacles faced, so it was an excellent lesson in problem solving. 

We then traveled to a Himalayan village called Melamchi, where Nepali students tested our desks. 

Now that we have returned from Nepal, we will continue to edit our designs based on our observations and conversations with the students. Our final designs will be manufactured and used in Kids of Kathmandu's future schools. 

Layout possibilities for a flexible classroom environment 

Open-Source Manual

A second goal of Sembli Collective was to create an open-source manual of all of our designs. The manual can simply be downloaded and used in any workshop. Our hope is that by spreading good design, we really encourage an improved learning environment in classrooms throughout the world, especially to developing countries like Nepal. 

While in Nepal, we also worked on an additional project for the students at East Point Academy. This project was a simple playground made from only wood and metal hardware. The playground was designed and built on-site in a 3 day period. The playground is now used by the students as a place to eat lunch, play, and create performances. 

Process