Design of a Sustainable Bamboo Toy for Preschool Children

Abstract

This project is performed for Tre Vang Company, a small scale bamboo factory in Vietnam, with the great love for the nature by producing bamboo products and creating employment with production of fair trade for the Western market. The market of bamboo products in Western market is gradually growing due to the increasing awareness of sustainability. The bamboo toys are especially very rare and new for the Western market. The objective of this project is to design a bamboo toy that can be produced by craftsmen at Tre Vang in Vietnam for preschool children in the Netherlands, creating both sustainable production and play. To achieve the objective, four phases have been carried out in this project: analysis, synthesis, prototyping, and evaluation. The final design is an improved Marbulus marble toy made from solid bamboo, Tam Vong, in a set of play mat (with packaging and manual) presented by a usage scenario. Marbulus is construction game which can be played in group. Children learn to build the bridge, put the tracks in the right slot with different slopes. They create their own marble runs with this construction set which can stimulate their creativity and reasoning. Besides, assembling the tracks in configurations suited for children’s developing understanding and also a way to learn and practice their hand-eye coordination. Solid bamboo crafted design makes the play set attractive and durable for years of educational and fun play. Moreover, it is not an industrial product but hand made product. Hand made product can create more appreciation and connection between the consumer and the product and also creates a closer relation between the user and producer as well.