Placemaking furniture designer Green Furniture Concept is launching its sustainable, award-winning Ascent modular seating system into healthcare. Dedicated research with healthcare management and architects and key design upgrades now makes it fully compliant with hospital and healthcare settings.
The Ascent system won the Red Dot Award for product design 2021. It is already used in public spaces with modular flexibility and flowing organic lines inspired by mountains and oceans. The wood material gives Ascent a natural look and feel and creates a calm sense of place, and promotes a healthy, stress-free environment for visitors and staff.
Ascent is ideal for healthcare interiors and has a low physical profile, enabling patients to be seen across waiting rooms. Its ergonomic and modular design allows a choice of seating arrangements, angles, and group sizes and can be easily configured to suit different
rooms and waiting areas. The variety of colours on the woods and upholstery makes it possible to create color-coded zones. You can easily build configurations that support wayfinding, traffic control, privacy, and social distancing.
Seamlessly designed wooden seats are fixed to a central steel beam (with individual slats removable for cleaning and repairs), making the system durable, stable, and secure. Seats are arranged back-toback and side-by-side to allow patients and their companions to communicate across the center line or while seated next to each other.
Ascent is hygienic and easy to clean and maintain. Different add-ons such as armrests, personal tables, and hidden cables for electrical points encourage patients to rest, eat/drink, or occupy themselves while they wait – making the waiting time more comfortable and less stressful.
“With our complete healthcare furniture solution, we have ensured we live up to the tough requirements that exist in healthcare, but we also create healthy environments for both patients and healthcare staff.” – Joakim Lundgren, Head of Design & Sustainability, Green Furniture Concept
The Ascent healthcare solution includes new elevated accessibility seats with easy-to-read signage and a removable click-on-off cushion. Due to its modular quality, it’s easy to incorporate the accessibility seating into the existing seating system, further ensuring Ascent meets healthcare furniture’s national and international requirements.
Visuals and possible layouts from the Ascent series are drawn up and installed by Green Furniture Concept’s design experts working in partnership with architects and healthcare managers so that each individual setting and project have the exact system appropriate for their needs – with maximum future proofing as demands on spaces change over time.
Green Furniture Concept’s Ascent modular system in hospitals and healthcare:
- A low profile makes it ideal for uninterrupted views across waiting rooms and patients feeling seen at all times
- Easily taken apart and moved, with some units shortened for small and transitional spaces
- Stackable and adaptable over time for increased/reduced traffic flow or social distancing
- Durable for high traffic areas and easily cleaned and disinfected, while individual slats are replaceable, making it low maintenance and affordable. Materials are sustainable, using recycled and biobased sources
- Ergonomically designed and comfortable for all body shapes and for those suffering pain or injury, even if they have to wait for a long time
- Sturdy, stable and accessible for those with mobility issues. Wooden seats are attached to aluminium central beam
- The accessibility seating can be elevated with a choice to add a cushion, easy-to-read signage, and armrests
- Creates a sense of place with architect-designed organic, curvilinear shapes – convex and concave contours inspired by mountains and oceans
- Made primarily of wood which is natural, warm and tactile. A key aspect of biophilic design for wellbeing
- Perfect for defining zones and wayfinding. Can be colour-coded in different formations using woods and upholstery, offering a choice of smaller clusters or larger group seating
- A range of colours means the LRV (light reflective value) ratio between sections of seating and differently lit spaces can be controlled
- Electrical points, armrests and tables for patients to distract themselves while they wait, while seats are comfortable enough for resting
- Back-to-back design encourages communication across the central beam, while units can be set out in a circular formation for sociable seating such as larger family groups