Kaixin Zhuang

Kaixin Zhuang featured image

About

Kaixin Zhuang is a Chinese designer with the background in furniture design. Before enrolling in the Royal College of Art, he focused on human needs and tried to solve real problems from the perspectives of lifestyle, industrial model and natural ecology based on furniture design . 

In RCA, Kaixin is essentially a curious explorer. His inquisitive nature motivates him to explore various projects which stem from multiple disciplines, i.e. product, consumer electronics,medical, sustainability and service design. 


Degree

BA- China Central Academy of Fine Art

MA- Royal College of Art 


Award & Exhibition

-AKI Tianhe Design Award Winner 2018，China

-‘Coffee Table’ Publission By Go Out Magazine 2021

-Work In Progress Show, 2020 / Royal College of Art, UK

-‘Trolley’ Attended Tokyo Design Week，TDW 2017，Japan

-‘Floor Hanger’ Attended Beijing Design Week 2016，China


Contact

Degree Details

Statement

Stay apparatus isn't about constraining people, but it's about supporting people who have to work in the real work conditions. By supporting body through the principle of triangular mechanics, you could take a nap between 15 to 30 minutes.

Stay apparatus aims for designing posture, tring to explore the relationship between body and enviroment. The reason for existing is in direct response to a perceived opportunity to improve workers conditions. The future of stay apparatus is to run a trial for clinical support and test how to improve the life quality.

Kaixin's passion is to explore how design can influence people's lives as well as see how the change in lifestyle can be developed. In human-centered, research-driven projects, his work aims to solve real problems and design for the future scenario by creative approach and design thinking. 

He believes that observing life carefully, experiencing design from living, and engaging with people could dig into the core of need and solve a problem in the world. Through in-depth research on behavior, he can discover the most essential need of humans from different perspective.


STAY APPARATUS

Stay apparatus - Body support itself

Posture-related issues are frequent across countries as they are common in all economic sectors. Tiring or painful positions a quarter of the time or more are reported by between 40% and 60% of workers in these same countries. In China, data from the national SSWCS survey reveals that 19% of workers are regularly affected by long sitting or standing operations, or by having to carry heavy loads.

It is the most common factory environment. In terms of easy operation, most assembly line work provide stools only, where they spend so much time and take a break.

I can't change the working conditions, which is driven by economics and the cost of labor by availability. What I can do as a designer is changing the user experience to make working conditions better.

Stay apparatus isn't about constraining people, but it's about supporting people who have to work in the real work conditions. By supporting body through the principle of triangular mechanics, you could take a nap between 15 to 30 minutes.

This is STAY APPARATUS!

Medium: Elastic fabric, Polypropylene fiber, Phermoplastic polymer resin

Size: Various

DESIGN FEATURE

Design feature 1 - Force analysis
Design feature 1 - Force analysis — How the stay apparatus help you keep stable? It is the principle of triangular mechanics which enabling the body to support itself. Most of backup support comes from the bottom of leg by gravity transformation. Knees also support your low back and remain you to maintain great posture. Exo-spine could protect your spine to reduce the risk of back pain.
Design feature 2 - Right position
Design feature 2 - Right position — The posture often recommended as ideal cannot be achieved without assistance. Exo-spine could guide you to the relatively right position and tell you which spine curve is for the most comfortable position. It will support your backup when you leaning back to around 120 degrees. Besides, free for moving around.
Design feature 3 - Easy to wear — How easy is it to put on and to adjust to yourself needed? No more than 1 minute to dress on and only need 10 seconds to take off. This buckle allows you adjust the length of harness only by one hand.
Design feature 4 - Detachable
Design feature 4 - Detachable — Stay apparatus is detachable and could be divided into two parts that means it could adapt to different body sizes.

Process

Previous outcome - Support structure
Previous outcome - Support structure
Previous outcome - Concept development
Previous outcome - Concept development — Support structure could provide choices of napping forward positions by connecting with different body parts. It allows you to find the most comfort poture for napping.
Muscle test — According to muscle fatigue test, I found that a little bit leaning back is suitable for napping upright. Data has shown that sitting upright or leaning back can help the waist and neck reduce pressure, help the workers maximize efficiency and minimum physiological disruption.
Prototype process
Prototype process — Most of my time was spent on prototype iteration. Here are some representational models created during the process. They are basically structural studies, trying to find the most appropriate force analysis for the triangular joints.
Materials select
Materials select