The right one for every type

Stiegelmeyer was spontaneously enthusiastic about the idea of asking architectural students who plan to go into designing healthcare facilities to take on the task of designing a new kind of beside cabinet. So the company management agreed to give both financial and professional support to a project at the Technical University of Dresden.

The project challenged students to apply their creative thinking to design a bedside cabinet without normative constraints or the restrictions of high hygienic standards or a tight budget.

The bedside cabinet is one of the basic furnishings of a patient’s room, whether in a hospital or a care facility. It is an everyday object used for placing food and medicines, a bunch of flowers from the family, or often a telephone and remote control. For bedridden patients, the bedside cabinet is also one of the few objects that they can access and use independently.

For the project, students had to critically assess the design and functionality of a bedside cabinet. First, they analysed the tasks which resulted from the needs of different patient groups. Then, using this as a basis, they designed their own concepts for a cabinet. Finally, they were able to discuss and further refine their concepts in an on-site appointment with development engineers and product managers from Stiegelmeyer.