Design and equipping educational institutions – technical descriptions of the wooden products

Equipping educational institutions with quality and contemporarily designed furniture and equipment is a serious problem in Croatia and abroad. There are many inconsistencies and the quality of furniture and equipment is rather low. Dimensions are not suitable for children and youth and materials used are inadequate and harmful for users' health. All these problems are partially a consequence of inadequate technical descriptions and lack of quality attributed to the products in use, especially in cases where companies bid on public tenders. With the aim to improve the conditions for bidding and equipping public institutions with furniture and equipment, a team of experts at the Department of furniture and wood products of the Faculty of Forestry in Zagreb published the Manual for Wood Products Quality for Educational Institutions in the framework of the project entitled Wood Is Good and financed by the Croatian Chamber of Economy, Hrvatske sume d.o.o. and the Ministry of Agriculture. The intention of the Manual is to stimulate and introduce high- quality furniture, equipment, construction products (doors, windows and floors) as well as other products made of wood and wooden materials in line with the HRN EN norms into the public procurement system and other tendering procedures, actively involve architects and designers in the production and motivate responsible methods for monitor and control production and delivery of wood products for equipping educational institutions. The authors believe that this document can serve as the platform for interdisciplinary analysis of various problems related to equipping educational institutions and preserving health of users. It can also strengthen cooperation between experts and scientists active in the fields of education, pedagogy, sociology, medical science, ergonomics, design, architecture, construction, technology, economy, ecology, wood and wood materials production and processing and many other.