Jung Joo Sohn and Barbara Young Receives the Bronze A' Design Award for Air Shield Multifunctional Workstation in Office Furniture Design

Jung Joo Sohn and Barbara Young recognized for office furniture design by the international grand jury of the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 23, 2021 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Air Shield Multifunctional Workstation by Jung Joo Sohn and Barbara Young, designed for Purdue University, has been granted the Bronze A' Design Award in the Office Furniture Design category. The award was conferred within the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition and was determined through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

The Bronze A' Design Award Explained

The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.

Regarding Air Shield Multifunctional Workstation

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, people should maintain physical distance to protect each other. The layout of the modern office, however, depends on space efficiency and communication with other co-workers. The goal of this project is to consider how employees can stay visibly connected while remaining protected in existing workspace layouts and consider how to use the solution sustainably after the corona pandemic. Air Shield is an attachable dual fan and filter system which serves to purify the air and protect desk occupants by blocking pathogen transmission with air currents.

About Jung Joo Sohn and Barbara Young

Jung Joo Sohn is an assistant professor of industrial and interaction design at Purdue University. Prior to joining Purdue, Sohn spent more than eight years as a UX (user experience) designer in the Corporate Design Center at Samsung Electronics and was a visiting scholar with the Aware Home Research Initiative (AHRI) at Georgia Institute of Technology. As a multidisciplinary designer, he contributed emerging devices, new mobile services (e.g., artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and health care), and related user interfaces with cutting-edge technologies in growth markets. Sohn’s research interests lie in the fields of industrial design, interaction design, and user experience.

Award Record

Jung Joo Sohn and Barbara Young is a winner of 1 A' Design Award, including this recognition.

About the A' Office Furniture Design Award

The A' Office Furniture Design Award is an international furniture design competition recognizing good office furniture by best designers and brands worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to office furniture designers, industrial design studios, office furniture brands and office furniture manufacturers from all countries. Typical entries include desks, chairs, file cabinets, conference tables, cubicles and workstations. The awarded office furniture designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/office-furniture

About A' Design Award & Competition

Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/122425
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/122425
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!122425
Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/303221

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project: Air Shield Multifunctional Workstation
Function: Multifunctional Workstation
Category: Office Furniture Design
Discipline: Industrial Design
Industry: Furniture & Home and Business
Colors: Black, Lavender, Dark Slate Gray, Light Gray and Silver
Images: 5
Client: Purdue University

The Recognition

Laureate: Jung Joo Sohn and Barbara Young
Country: United States of America
Recognition: Bronze A' Design Award
Edition: 2020 - 2021
Design ID: #122425

Credits

Team: Jung Joo Sohn and Barbara Young

Design Details

Unique Properties: Air Shield is an attachable dual fan and filter system which serves to purify air and protect desk occupants by blocking pathogen transmission with air currents. Fan systems filter a variety of air impurities, good for mitigating pathogen transmission and reducing allergies, as well as providing mild white noise for acoustic privacy in open office systems.
Inspiration: Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, people should maintain physical distance to protect each other. The layout of the modern office, however, depends on space efficiency and communication with other co-workers. The goal of this project is to consider how employees can stay visibly connected while remaining protected in existing workspace layouts and consider how to use the solution sustainably after the corona pandemic.
Research: Air Shield is the product of a cross-discipline collaboration between a product designer and interior designer to explore resilient, non-temporal, solutions that mitigate the spread of pathogens in workplace environments. Considering a product with potential uses and benefits during and after the COVID-19 pandemic was a primary goal. The team reviewed existing design recommendations for office solutions that mitigate COVID-19 transmission and compared those to global workforce surveys which aggregated perceptions of working-from-home, the desire to return to the office, and perceived obstacles of both.
Challenge: The inception of this project was to challenge the use of partitions for safely separating people during the COVID-19 pandemic. The team speculated that after the pandemic had subsided, screens and partitions used to provide physical separation would be removed and sent to landfills, causing harm to the environment. Additionally, mixed recommendations about materials were presented fueled by research that showed the virus lived longer on hard surfaces which are, of course, easier to clean. The team was challenged to consider a workable solution that had benefits and uses beyond the COVID-19 crisis.
Realization and Technology: The Air Shield housing is made of extruded aluminum with perforations and molded plastic end caps which are removable for ease in changing the primary air filter. Air Shield uses a dual-fan system to filter and circulate air. The outer fan blades are made of HEPA filters with customized Germ Defense material to purify the air. The inner fan is made from plastic. Both fans run on a motor. The steel screw-clamp is fitted with rubber pads to protect work surfaces.
Operation and Interaction: Air Shield is easily installed and removed with two screw clamps. A simple push-button operation on the lower right-hand side of the unit powers on/off the Air Shield fan. Motion sensors detect when other people are present to start the air-flow. For example, if someone is sitting on the left side, Air Shield detects them and activates the air curtain from the left side.
Project Duration and Location: The project was started in May of 2020 in the United States of America and substantially completed in July with continual updates and revisions.
Specifications: Air Shield is 57” wide, 31.10” deep, and 28.50” tall. The fan unit is held 0.5” off of the work surface by an adjustable clamp. Air Shield can be attached to any work surface over 57” wide, but it is illustrated on a custom-designed, adjustable height workstation that is 31.10” deep and can adjust between 28.5” - 42.00” high.
Keywords: Workstation Design, Workplace Design, COVID-19, Air Purification, Air Flow, Air Curtains, Invisible Partitions, Fan Systems