KI Manufacture Sustainable Educational Furniture

KI is the largest educational furniture manufacturer in the world.

With over 60 years experience, KI understand the distinct and evolving needs of the educational environment. They design furniture that facilitates learning and interaction between students and staff.

Educational stakeholders, Designers and Administrators make buying decisions for furniture based on many factors. Cost, durability, functionality, safety, and aesthetics represent just a few of the many practical considerations. In addition to BREEAM certification, more facility managers and global architects seek LEED certification, they need environmentally friendly products that can help them achieve it. KI is continuing to design furniture that encompasses customers' needs for products that are safe, aesthetically pleasing, affordable, and help earn points toward LEED certification for the building as a whole.

Jonathan Hindle, Group Managing Director - Europe, Middle East & East Asia says:

"Furniture is a crucial component in creating a quality learning environment. Seating should be comfortable and durable and worksurfaces ought to be able to accommodate specific tasks including note taking, laptop computer use and conducting experiments. Beyond these functional aspects, the image portrayed correlates to student perception of teachers' performance expectations - an attractive, highly functional, quality environment tells them you expect excellence."

Today's educators, administrators and facility planners have more to consider than ever before when making decisions that will help students achieve their full potential. Furniture solutions that maximize flexibility for teachers and students are at the heart of a successful modern educational environment.

KI is at the forefront of educational furnishing knowledge and expertise having designed and manufactured furniture for many global Educational Institutions.

Designing classrooms with more functional flexibility means that a teacher can easily vary instructional methods to accommodate different learning styles and course topics simply by utilizing reconfigurable furniture. For example, teachers can arrange seating into rows for test taking, circles for group discussions, semicircles for lectures and presentations, or several smaller groupings for collaborative team projects.

Movable furniture further creates a positive learning environment by allowing teachers and students to move closer together. For instance, desks can be rotated so students sitting near the back of the room can easily relocate to the front. Positioning students nearer to teachers helps them maintain attention and interest.

KI educational furniture includes: classroom furniture, powered tables, auditorium seating, fixed seating, tables, desking, task/desk seating, guest/side seating, lounge seating, occasional tables, library furniture, cafeteria furniture and residence hall furniture.

LEED is a voluntary, consensus-based standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. Originating in the United States this standard is now being widely adopted in the UK and globally by leading architectural practices. GREENGUARD certified furniture earns points toward projects receiving certification under the LEED for Commercial Interiors and LEED for Schools.

Most of KI's portfolio of products are GREENGUARD certified. Many have been installed at LEED and BREEAM accredited buildings in the UK, Europe and the Middle East.

A new European Education Overview will shortly be released by KI. Visit KI's website at www.ki.com/europe