Rattan as an alternative material for elementary school furniture to support active learning

A proper rattan chair and table design may support the elementary school students’ active learning activities. Rattan is often used as a furniture material due to its lightweight, long-lasting, strong, and attractive characteristic. Since Indonesia is blessed with large amount of natural resources as well as rattan, Indonesian designers have the privilege to explore or develop it. This study aim to analyze the advantages of rattan furniture design as a local material for active learning activities in elementary school. This study conducted visual experiment and made various chair designs recommended by previous literature and compared them to the chairs usually used in Indonesian elementary schools. In this study, we analyze existing school chairs and develop them into rattan elementary school furniture. The rattan was selected proportionally based on the users. The physical structure of elementary school rattan chair was proposed to be efficient in supporting the learning activities by providing easier mobility.