nsr factory: [ Toy ] Bamboo Toy

Last year 15 students from the toy design course at
shenkar college, israel and their professors yoav ziv
and assaf eshet were invited to china by the toy makers
HaPe international ltd, to spend a month with them
developing bamboo toys.

yoav ziv and assaf eshet describe their experience:
a meeting at the 2007 toy fair with mr. peter handstein,
founder and CEO of HaPe international ltd., lead to
an extraordinary experience for our students and us.

since 2004 peter handstein, founder and CEO of HaPe
has been carrying out his vision to develop, manufacture
and distribute bamboo toys worldwide. with the current
eco scene and massive product recalls in the toy market
(over unacceptable high lead levels in toy paint) it seems
that the time for bamboo toys may well have arrived.

as professional industrial designers in the premium
toy industry and as academy teachers, we found this
challenge to be an opportunity to revisit bamboo as a
material and its opportunities. the bamboo plant has
many outstanding features and qualities (see bamboo
facts). as a material it has been ingeniously used for
centuries by generations of artisans, toolmakers and
architects. traveling to asia, one can easily notice many
amazing structures, furniture and various other common
applications utilizing this material.

currently, various contemporary creators are
investigating the question of integrating bamboo into
the mass production perception while meeting western
standards. in our workshop we tackled this question,
focusing on preschool toys while taking into
consideration other aspects such as characteristics of
the age group and safety regulations.

the journey to china
the first part of the 'chinese experience' took place in
the regions anji and yunhe, where the students visited
the enormous bamboo forest known as 'bamboo ocean'
and one of the locations for the movie 'crouching tiger,
hidden dragon'. the group was exposed to the traditional
cultivation process of the raw material as well as to
different finishing techniques. students stayed with
anji farmers, learning about local culture and the
importance of the bamboo in supplying everyday
necessities from energy through clothing and medicine
up to food and beverage. the modern wood-toy production
line and toy-safety issues were studied during a visit to
the new hape international factory in ningbo.

anji workshop
an extensive two-week workshop took place in anji
located in the heart of bamboo forests, guided by us
together with HaPe’s designers and assisted by local
artisans and master-model makers. during this period
our students experienced the material through
'hands-on' methods, testing its qualities and literally eating, drinking and dreaming bamboo.
a prototype test session took place in a local 600-child kindergarten, where toy
usability was better understood. a presentation to hape
senior staff including guest professors from the china
academy of arts concluded the workshop.

toy course
back in the shenkar academy, other design issues were
questioned and explored. correctly integrating bamboo
together with other materials, product appearance, and
the visual language were some of the challenges the
students addressed. moreover, comparison to other
classic existing wood or plastic toys was inevitable and therefore we directed
the students to create newer and even better bamboo dominated products.

eco play with bamboo conference
the project was concluded at a recent conference at
shenkar. guests from germany, france, china and israel
took part in this event, focusing on the bamboo issue
and its integration into sustainable, well designed toys.
the list of guests included peter handstein, kristin lena schumann, guenther schumacher-loose, jonathan segal,
erez stainberg and ran lichtner. the event included a
two-week open display of final works together with a
short movie and booklet documenting the project and
the visit to china.

bamboo facts
- bamboo grows more rapidly than any other (woody)
plant on earth.