Three University of Pennsylvania design students recently traveled to Alessi’s factory in Italy to present their prototype for a new standing desk that they developed over a semester-long course, incorporating feedback that they received from an Alessi review panel along the way.

The winning prototype, dubbed Kabu, was designed by Alex Chin, Tom MacDonald, and Shai Gerner. The three presented their design to Alberto Alessi, the company’s president and a grandson of its founder, at the company’s factory in January.

The workshop was conceived and taught by Jordan Goldstein, a principal and managing director of Gensler, the architecture, design, and planning firm. He began with a question: What would a next-generation standing desk look like if it were made by Alessi? The lectures explored a range of related questions, including how new materials and fabrication methods influence the evolution of product design, and how ergonomic issues and sustainability concerns inform the process.

The students shared their design concepts and prototypes with members of a review panel composed of employees of Alessi, which has organized similar student workshops at the Ecole Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne in Switzerland and the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan.

“Over the last year, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Alessi to study the workplace accessory market,” Goldstein says. “We recognized a mutual interest in a few workplace product typologies that would benefit from some blue-ocean thinking, and my classroom at the University of Pennsylvania seemed like a great laboratory to experiment.

“Alessi isn’t known for its workplace furniture,” he adds, “but their fresh thinking, craftsmanship, and attention to detail make them an ideal partner to tackle a product category that is clearly in need of innovation.”

Paolo Cravedi, managing director of Alessi USA, said the company gets a lot out of working with students.

“We believe in the fresh perspective that young designers can bring to product design, especially in consideration of their different cultural backgrounds and their different curricular experiences,” he says. “And many of these workshops have been behind quite successful and meaningful product introductions.”