02x01 - Cardboard Furniture

[bunniefuu]

♪ We've got two days to get this straight

♪ We got a challenge just won't wait

our eyes are on the prize ♪ An engineer

just set the date ♪ We got this client

can't be late oh, no, it's go time

♪ Build it, test, fix it debug now and kick it

♪ Got to get it off the ground yeah

♪ Stick around and you'll see what teamwork's supposed to mean

♪ It's so key Design Squad

Design Squad!♪

Welcome to a new season of Design Squad!

[ cheers and applause] Over the next weeks you're

going to be designing and building real projects that

solve real problems for real clients, just like real

engineers do.

Now, we've got the Purple Team.

And Green Team.

There you go.

Now if you turn towards the back you'll see where your workshops

are.

You have identical workspaces.

They're equipped with all the tools you need to design and

build and troubleshoot your projects, including computers

with Internet access for research.

Back here in the shop there are larger tools that you'll share.

So let's get down to business.

Now, each week the winning team gets points per member.

The losing team gets zero.

Now, at the end of the weeks, the engineer in training with

the most points is going to win the grand prize, which is no

less than...

a college scholarship from the Intel Foundation.

[ cheers and applause] So without further ado let's

hear from your client to find out what your first challenge

is.

Roll the tape.

It's IKEA!

IKEA has hundreds of room settings designed to inspire

you.

This room was designed with a -year-old girl in mind.

We chose a fun, bright color, and added plenty of space to

store clothes, and a lot of room to hang out with friends.

And this is a boys' room.

There's lots of functional storage.

It makes the most out of a small space.

We want you to design furniture for girls' and boys'

rooms.

Here are the specs.

Both teams must build one large piece and one small piece of

furniture for one room.

You can either substitute an existing piece or design a

completely new one.

Either way, one of the two pieces must have an innovative

storage feature.

But here's the catch-- you must use cardboard made from recycled

paper to build your furniture.

And they must be modern, comfortable, innovative, and

functional.

Both pieces will be unveiled at IKEA, and will be judged by the

public.

[ cheers and applause] So what do you guys think?

Good challenge?

Let's review the specs, all right?

You're building two pieces of furniture, one small, and one

large.

You can either choose to replace or add to the bedroom set.

Now, please keep in mind that this is real.

Your projects are actually going to be on display in IKEA,

subjected to the public's decision about who wins.

Right?

Now, do we have any questions?

How do you decide who's going to do what one?

So glad you asked.

Musical chairs.

Nice.

Off we go.

So you all know how musical chairs works.

There's eight of you, seven stools.

You walk around the circle until the music stops.

Last person standing is out.

We're going to go until one team is left, and that team gets to

choose which room they're designing for.

You ready?

Yeah.

Roll the music.

I'm out!

Oh!

Come on.

All right, everybody up again.

No stopping, no stopping.

That's right.

I think we got it.

You're out.

Down!

Oh, Kim's out.

Are we going to be able to pull this off, do you think?

Oh, I've got this.

I know you do.

Nice game, nice game, everybody.

The Purple Team gets to choose which room they're going to

design for us.

So guys, huddle up, make the decision.

Let's go.

What did you guys choose?

Girl's room.

The girl's room.

Okay.

I'm going to go tell Green Team they've got boy's.

Okay.

Green Team, you've got the boy's.

That's what we wanted.

How's that make you feel?

All right, you guys have it.

What are we all standing around for?

Start brainstorming.

Green Team over there, Purple Team in your corner.

Go!

Oh, look at the pictures.

Okay.

I'd like to replace something that's already there.

So we can have all the freedom to work with it and make it

whatever we'd like.

You know how some kitchen cabinets have the rotating disc?

The lazy Susan, yeah.

Oh, what if it's like this?

This actually looks cool.

Christmas tree-esque.

You know, like, in my room I'd rather have this than that

bookshelf.

Circles are a manly shape.

[ laughter]

Designing for an eight-year- old boy.

I haven't been an eight-year-old boy since I was eight, but it

would be harder for me to think of what a -year-old girl would

like, because I've never been a -year-old girl.

So I was kind of happy that we got a room that at least I could

somehow relate to.

Wait.

What if it's, like, a corkscrew, where we take the same space as

one corkscrew...

I think we need to step back, and instead of trying to be,

like, overly unique, we need to think practical.

We were thinking that if we could make, like, one of those

long lounge couches like you see in, like, psychiatrists'

offices, like, how it swoops down, we could replace that

with...

Start sketching.

All right, so this is going to be something like a chair,

and then we could probably do something fancy with the legs

down like this.

Think we should get a piece of cardboard and see what it

looks like?

Okay.

Okay.

Oh, boy.

What if we used it as shoe storage?

What if, like, we had a bunch of them inside and put shoes in

them?

Oh, that would be hot!

So it's basically...

What if we made it shaped like a shoe?

What if we took a chunk out of here...

And it could be, like, a shoe.

Oh!

That's hot.

We could, like, put tubes together to make it stronger for

the sitting part, like one row, two rows, three rows.

What if we had, like, a whole string of tubes like this, you

know?

Yeah, something like that.

Are shoes cool, though, for -year-olds?

Yeah.

Okay, a chair shaped like a shoe.

Okay, anyway, this is still one idea.

Where's the other one?

Well, we could make it be a side table.

We could have it at different... have different

layers.

Have different...

And, like, little...

Hey, good job.

And the top one would be the tabletop.

Well, hello.

How's it going?

Fine.

Swell.

Swell.

Good.

Give me the , foot view of what you're doing.

We're still tossing around ideas.

We don't exactly know what to make.

Okay.

Who's your client?

A boy, or boys.

Two boys.

Two boys.

Two boys.

Twin boys, most likely.

Where do they live?

By the ocean.

In a small town in the suburbs.

It's right there.

Oh, spec sheet.

Tells you all about your clients.

Did you guys actually look at this before I even got here?

I'll be honest.

No.

It's a lot of writing.

Is it?

And measurements.

You know, reading, the pictures... you guys need to

focus in.

Think about who you're making this for.

Where do they live?

What's important about this room?

What's the theme of the room?

Tell me about the theme of the room.

It looks like sailing.

Sailing, nautical theme.

I like that.

Okay.

Get to the point where you guys have a plan that you can execute

in the limited amount of time you have left today so you can

make good use of it, all right?

Okay.

Okay.

So we have twin boys, eight- year-old.

Each wants to have their own space in one small room.

That makes two of everything except for a bookcase, where

there's one.

And if you can replace the bookcase with maybe another

bookcase, but in some way divided so that two people could

use it for two separate things.

I say two of us work on detailing the rest of this

bookshelf, and the rest of us...

And two of us figure out the next idea.

Okay.

The problem with the bookshelf was you can't really

define whose space is what.

I think whatever the bookshelf is, it has to be clearly defined

spaces.

Like that's my space, your space, our space.

Sounds great.

What if we have, like something that came down from

the top that was a storage space?

What if we... somewhere in here we incorporated one of

those little basketball hoops?

Those are fun.

Nice.

That would be nice.

That would be an awesome hook.

There's going to be two sides.

We're using many layers of cardboard so that it supports

the weight.

Because if it's one, it's going to bend.

If it's many, it's not going to bend, you see?

Many is strong.

Tomas is right.

The sides of the chair need to be both stiff and strong.

When you sit on a chair, your weight pushes down on the sides,

placing them in compression, like a column.

The sides must be stiff enough to prevent bending and to

prevent buckling under the load.

A single sheet of cardboard will buckle.

So if Purple Team laminates or glues several sheets together,

they'll make the sides of their chair thicker, increasing the

stiffness to carry the load.

So I use contact cement.

And this helps the cardboard stay together and stay tight.

And it needs to dry.

All right, guys, what we were thinking is there's going to be

a big hexagon on top, and it's going to have the hoop on it.

Okay?

Your theme is more like the ceiling theme.

We have that... why would you want a basketball?

I mean, who doesn't?

Basketball's awesome.

Kids would like it.

So what's the ideal, though?

Right under it, you have three other hexagons.

A shelf, a coat hanger, picture frame, and basketball hoop.

I think that is awesome.

Which tubes are we going to use?

I think we should use these, because they're more cute and

smaller.

Like, here, here, and here.

Let's go cut out the circles.

I'm going to make a notch in this just to see if one of the

possible ways we can put the shelves spaced along the tubes

is to make a notch and then stick it in there.

What do you guys think of this?

Cool.

It looks really New Age.

We're going to cut together, that way it won't slow us down.

If I never have to cut another piece of cardboard with

a knife again it will be way, way too soon.

How's it going?

Oh, so far so good.

We're just cutting a bunch of pieces to make the shelves that

will go between the two cylinders.

So when they're all glued together they'll form a nice,

sturdy piece.

You can bend that over and it'll form a nice finished head.

Got you.

That sounds pretty good.

Tedious work.

All right.

Well, keep it up, then.

Thanks.

Is this your drawing over there?

Yes, that is our drawing.

Let's go look at it.

Okay.

So this one, the biggest one is going to be the basketball

hoop, then there are going to be three smaller ones under it.

This one's going to have the hooks for coats, this one is

going to be the shelf, and this one is going to be a picture

frame.

You know what your design is in your head, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

Can you redraw it so I can understand it, too?

So we have... this is in between the closets in the boys'

room.

We have a top hexagon...

Okay.

...that has a basketball hoop on it.

Then we have other hexagons coming out from right here.

What about this fits with a nautical theme and will speak to

an eight-year-old boy that walks into IKEA and says, "Mom, I want

to get that"?

How set are you guys on this?

We are.

We're just having issues with the measurements right now.

I think...

I think if we get that sorted out I think we can really make

one...

That's a totally different thing than I was just talking

about.

I'm more concerned about your concept.

If it's just a jumble of features stuck together, like

any project, that's not going to fulfill your overall concept if

it's not well thought out.

So think about that and try and use your time wisely.

Okay.

I honestly don't think it's going to work.

I mean, it's, like, going to be a hunk of cardboard on the wall.

Do you want to keep this?

No.

Okay, clean slate.

Okay, so...

Put your tools down, Design Squads.

That's it for day one!

Distressed and distraught is how I would sum up today.

We haven't even started building anything, so it's going to be a

little difficult.

We're going to do great.

Not just good, but great!

Come on, guys.

Day two!

You know what I was thinking?

What?

For the table, this one could be the little spiral thing.

Maybe you could hang something here, something here.

Like, we still have a table, but just in between it.

But one of them be a spiral?

Yeah.

Okay.

That'll give it more of, like, you know, a cool effect.

It's basically more decorative than structural.

It's just to add, like, the nice touch, the nice girly touch, I

guess.

That's really cool.

Good job, guys.

That's a nice design.

We are, like, close to being finished with our table.

How about our chair?

Let's test it out to see if it really works.

It's going to go this way.

Oh, okay.

That's pretty strong.

That's fine.

Do you want to start drawing the general shape of this chair?

You're going to sit here, and then the legs start from here to

there, and your body starts from here to here.

It's comfortable.

You okay with it?

Yeah.

Great.

We're thinking that these things by themselves are really

sturdy, plus they're already circles.

And if we cut slots, and then you can put discs that'll be

going inside it, and those will make shelves in hand.

Glue the shelves and roll it over and make a nice finished

head.

This is going to work great.

The tube is a circle.

We're going to make some circle shelves, which turn it into a

super storage machine.

Okay.

So let's get this done.

What if we... this thing, this red thing.

What if we make a cabinet that's basically shaped as a lighthouse

which would hold the same kind of things as this would?

Yeah.

It would come down, sort of flare out at the bottom, and

then we'd have the lighthouse shapes and whatever is up here.

Ah, I like that.

Yeah.

We should just make sure... I mean, this looks about, like, an

inch apart.

I think they should be at least an inch apart.

How's it going?

Oh, is this a chair profile?

Yeah.

Oh, sweet.

Your lamination's... my gosh, that's awesome.

This is going to be really neat.

I like it.

This is the seating area.

And these are samples for the tubes.

We were worried about if there's, like, a lot of stress

on the cardboard tubes.

Someone's going to be sitting on them.

On just the tubes?

Yeah.

If they're too far apart then there's less tubes, which means

there's more stress on the tubes that are there.

Absolutely right.

But say, like, if we took out every other one, the tubes might

not be strong enough.

So if you distribute it out more evenly with more of them, you're

decreasing the stress of any given one.

And so...

So we need more tubes?

Yeah, that's exactly what I was just going to say.

Good thinking.

Keep it up.

I can't wait to sit in that.

Thanks.

This looks like some serious design changes.

Only a little bit.

Not too bad.

Tell me about it.

You guys got some kind of neat folding structure going on here?

Yes.

So we've completely reworked our design, completely, to be a

lighthouse.

And it's going to be a shelving unit with a light on the top, so

it's kind of like a night light.

It's kind of cute.

I like that.

So what we're doing is we're actually making the frame of the

body just one piece of cardboard that we're going to fold over so

we get the neat lines and a nice straight edge.

This is going to be really good.

Yeah.

You guys clearly put some thought into it.

It's got a very clear function, and it goes with the room, and

it's really appealing.

I mean, the light at the top, like, that really gives it a

little extra flair that... I mean, I haven't seen a product

like this before, so it's really good stuff.

Big improvement from yesterday.

I know, I'm so happy.

Oh, yeah.

It looks like a bird.

Oh, yeah.

I'll be glad when it actually looks like a lighthouse.

I'll clap when yours actually looks like a bookshelf.

That's the shape of a shoe.

Oh, hey, that looks really nice.

Oh, that's hot.

I like it.

I would sit on that.

Oh, yeah.

The moment of truth.

Make sure you guys rotate.

Hard.

We should tip it on its side.

Okay.

I don't feel good about this, so I think we should just make

the holes slightly bigger so that the tubes go in easier.

Oh, that is not good.

Look what happened.

What happened?

The bottom.

This is coming out?

Yeah.

You're talking about that?

Doesn't look clean at all.

It's almost like one side is...

the side here is not long enough.

Fold the top on.

It has to be really tightly snug.

Well, we don't have tabs on the top.

Why aren't there tabs?

Oh, good.

I'm such an idiot.

Yeah.

All right.

Okay, how do we work around this?

Okay, we can... options we have, we can either make another

one...

No.

You guys look frustrated.

Yeah, yeah.

That would be a good word.

What's happening?

We're finding that with this, the folding that we're doing, a

lot of it's inaccurate.

It's pretty bad.

So what are your options for the rest of the day?

We have those big -inch tubes.

What if we cut that in half and used that as, like, the shelving

area, and we could put shelves into the half tube, and then put

the light on top of it?

That doesn't seem too bad.

It maintains your lighthouse idea, and no more folding

trouble.

Yeah.

Do you guys think you can pull it off in the time you have

left?

We have to.

I guess you do have to, right?

We have no choice.

All right.

Well?

I've cut a fin out of cardboard, and now I'm going to

bend it.

Here we go.

Now I'm going to attach it to the lighthouse.

If this doesn't work, I really have no idea what we're

going to do.

But it's going to work.

There we go.

Pretty good.

Who's going to sit in it and do the honors?

Not so bad.

I like it.

How does it feel?

I'd buy this chair.

Who's next?

Leah.

Yeah, and it doesn't feel like it's bending at all.

It feels really strong.

How about the other project?

It's a classy piece of cardboard furniture.

So then you have it... you know, you put your drink up

here, whatnot.

Okay.

And then you can store your extra magazines and newspapers

in here.

That's nice.

Sure.

Very nice.

Kind of modular, right?

You could take it apart, put it back together.

Upside down, right side up, mix and match.

Very nice.

That's a cool extra option.

Did you guys intend for it to be that neat when it was upside

down, or was it by accident?

Of course.

Of course you did.

It was all designed intent.

Brilliant work.

So what do you think?

I like it.

It's really good.

Yes.

Do you like it?

This is great!

Green Team, your space is here.

What do you guys think?

It is smaller than I thought it would be.

I like it.

Move it in and start setting up.

Purple Team, you guys are over here.

You guys are replacing a couple of items, right?

It's better in person.

You like it better that the picture?

Yeah.

That's so cool.

Let's not waste any time.

You guys get set up.

And don't overaccessorize.

Here we go.

Looks great.

That look all right?

Awesome.

Guys, I found some shoes to put in our shoe storage place.

Right there, it's perfect.

Put this on top of the table.

Speechless.

So perfect.

We're in awe.

I like our table a lot.

There's nothing wrong with it.

It came out awesome.

I really love it.

I'm speechless.

It's so beautiful.

Looks good, guys.

It looks really nice.

It's awesome.

That fits very nicely.

All right, I think we're ready for the public.

For shoes, for blankets.

Oh, that's clever.

That is clever.

It's reversible, so you turn it the other way, little swirly

turns into an art piece.

Well, I like this stuff.

It's going to be hard to beat this.

Before you choose, you can check out the Green Team's also.

It's right over here.

It's a shelving unit that doubles as a night light.

Oh, I love that.

The first thing that we did is this new bookshelf.

What do you guys think of all this?

I liked the nightlight nautical theme.

I thought it was clever, though, that they could make a chair out

of cardboard.

Yeah.

I like the Green Team's shelf.

They had the two separate areas of storage for the twin boys,

and it was more functional and realistic.

Whoa, I've got an idea.

Oh, yeah.

That too, that too.

All right.

That works, too.

Yep.

They selling these?

Design Squads, the public has spoken, and voting is now

closed.

I'm going to take the ballots.

There will be no recounts.

Good luck to both of you.

I just can't wait to figure out which pile is ours.

The bigger one.

I think it's going to be close.

, , ...

Do you think we're ahead?

Hopefully.

Yeah.

I'm going to have a heart attack.

The public has spoken, and I'm proud to announce that with a

winning score of to , the winner of the IKEA cardboard

furniture challenge is Purple Team.

So points goes to each member of Purple Team.

Green Team, better luck next week.

The teams are shuffled up, and we're on to our next challenge.

Hug it up.

So after the first challenge, it's a four-way tie for first

place.

But the lead is still up for grabs when the teams get

shuffled up next week on Design Squad.

Hey, have you checked our Web site?

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

You can build projects on your own or with your friends, and

you can win cool stuff.

Oh, check it out.

Go to pbskidsgo.org.

Coming up...

Oh!

Whoops.

The teams try to keep their heads above water next time

on Design Squad.

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