Istanbul, Turkey
Istanbul-based Gurol Erkal designs the Sento Kids Collection, a colorful bathroom collection that has been developed by VitrA Innovation Centre Ergonomics Laboratory engineers, and it is specially designed for toddlers in order to turn their toilet experience into a natural process.
The project has been been awarded a 2020 Good Design Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The VitrA Sento Kids Collection focuses on toilet use at two main milestones in the personal development of children: three to five and five to six years.
Age, sex, height, weight, and knee heights of children between the ages of three to five and five to six were taken into account as their toilet behaviors were observed.
The color palette of the Sento Kids Collection was chosen to encourage children to feel they belong in the bathroom, an environment they can use safely.
A range of colors free of “gender codes” offer versatility in design and were chosen to focus on the senses of, and to support the development of, specific age groups.
The Sento Kids Collection aims also to minimize accidents in the bathroom.
Tests on children’s physical condition and use of bathrooms carried out at the VitrA Innovation Centre directed the design of Sento Kids to provide a physically safe environment as well as an educational and hygienic one.
Rounded corners and flexible materials used in washbasins and WC pans intend to transform bathrooms and toilets into spaces that banish injury.
Project: Sento Kids
Designers: Gurol Erkal, Vitra Design Team
Manufacturers: Eczacibasi Building Products
