New Honey element boosts social safety

We proudly present our new multifunctional element ‘Honey’, a flexible and minimalist element for sitting, climbing and playing, shaped like a honeycomb. Moving and stacking these elements is literally child’s play, enabling pupils to create their own environment with all the advantages this offers. Linda van Orsouw (designer at the COMB), who is responsible for developing this concept, talks about this.

According to Linda, the most important starting point in developing the Honey was to create more self-esteem and self-confidence in children: “My dream is for everyone to be the most beautiful version of themselves, with a strong focus on self-esteem that allows each person to stand out from the crowd and enables everyone to blossom into an ambitious, special and genuine person.”

“I have researched the influence of physical environment on building self-confidence and self-esteem in schoolchildren which resulted in a whole list of spatial interventions that make a positive contribution to this and with which schools can improve social safety. This is also the origin of the Honey,” says Linda.

“My dream is to let everyone be the most beautiful version of themselves, with a focus on the self-esteem that makes us stand out from the crowd”.

The Honey enables children to create their own play and learning environment. The minimalist shapes stimulate imagination and creativity, and working together promotes mutual understanding and empathy in children, which in turn contributes to a socially safe environment.

The design of the Honey was inspired by the post-war playgrounds of Aldo van Eijk: “These playgrounds also have fixed, minimalist objects, forcing children to play together and to use their imagination. Van Eijk called the playgrounds ‘tools for imagination’, which can be interpreted differently by each child.”

The Honey is an accessible way for schools to invest in more social safety, Linda concludes: “It doesn’t matter how far a school wants to go, even a small arrangement of furniture can make a difference. Every little bit helps!”