Ornamo Design Award 2011
Ornamo Design Award 2011 to interior architect, SIO, Susan Elo
Design Senior – timely furniture and service concept with the makings of an export product
The Ornamo Design Award 2011 was given on 29 September 2011 to interior architect, SIO, Susan Elo and her Design Senior furniture concept. The recipient for the Ornamo Design Award 2011 was chosen by Pekka Paasikivi, chairman of the board of Oras Invest Oy, a prominent figure in the Finnish and international world of investment and industry. The award is given out by the Ornamo Foundation.
The awarded work is Susan Elo’s Design Senior furniture and service concept. Design Senior is a visionary, overall concept offering a furniture line for senior citizens living at home, as well as services connected with the repair, maintenance and adaptability of the products. Design Senior is designed for ageing people who need extra support with moving around and coping at home. The aim of the concept is to improve the conditions for living at home and, this way, to have an effect on people’s well-being. The products are characterized by longevity, esthetics and adaptability to different situations.
"Today’s senior citizens are active and they hold esthetics in great value. Instead of institutions, they prefer to stay living at home for as long as possible. Home products aimed at senior citizens and the product development of services that support them needs fresh ideas and a real shot in the arm. There is surely room for new innovations and beautiful alternatives not only in Finland but also abroad. Design Senior is more than a furniture line – it is a vision of an elegant senior brand where Scandinavian design, Finnish technology and ethical values meet", Elo describes her concept.
"Susan Elo’s work is based on a clear business idea which is aimed at a growing customer group – the ageing population. Design Senior is a concept that combines the product with services, and with a new way of operating. The overall concept has a lot of potential additional value, a large enough target group and an idea that offers a concrete alternative to institutional care. Design Senior enables individualized, case-by-case product solutions that also have the possibility to reach significant production volumes. What is innovative about this overall concept is a holistic business idea that can potentially give birth to new, good business.
The concept also represents a socially conscious perspective that promotes the well-being and quality of life among senior citizens. It makes it possible for them to live longer at home. Enabling ageing people to live at home also means clear savings for the society. Here we have a good idea that provides opportunities to develop and disseminate both economic and other values. The concept can be applied and reproduced for international markets, so it can, when effective, become a successful export product", Pekka Paasikivi states as grounds for his choice of winner.
Press release: Puolestapuhujat