JPA design gains international awards recognition

London, July 2008: James Park Associates has announced that its recent design for Singapore Airlines’ A380 Business Class seat has been awarded an honourable mention at this year’s prestigious red dot design awards.

The red dot awards recognise outstanding international product design and receive over 7,000 entries each year, from more than 60 countries.

Singapore Airlines is the first airline to fly the Airbus A380, the largest passenger jet ever produced. It launched its London to Singapore route at Heathrow Airport on 18th March. The Business Class seat designed for the aircraft by James Park Associates is the widest in its class and folds flat to create the longest ever Business Class bed.

Designer James Park says:

“We are delighted to receive an honourable mention from the red dot awards for this design. It has been a pleasure to work with Singapore Airlines on a design which sets new standards for business class travel. This Business Class seat offers levels of space, comfort and functionality which would until now only have been associated with First Class travel and it underlines the huge importance of the Business Class traveller to both airlines and designers.”

Design expert and initiator of the red dot design award Professor Dr Peter Zec explains:

“Successful products are different from less successful ones in that they can survive in the real world. Successful participation in a design competition can be an initial sign of a product’s later commercial success, because competitions allow an objective assessment of otherwise often very subjective design decisions.”

James Park Associates’ design of Singapore Airlines’ A380 Business Class seat has already been confirmed as a commercial success and is currently being retrofitted to Singapore’s Airbus A340-500 all-Business Class Transpacific fleet.

At 86cm wide, the seat is the widest business class seat available and offers a private environment which adapts to become an office, dining room, bedroom or entertainment zone, according to the passenger’s wishes. The seat also adapts to become a 193cm-long lie-flat bed which is, uniquely for business class, forward-facing.

Additional advantages of the seat include a non-palletised design, helping to cut maintenance costs, and a 15% weight reduction compared with other business class seats, helping to minimise fuel consumption. The innovative nature of the design is illustrated by the patents that have been taken out on a number of the seat’s elements.

James Park concludes:

“Our commitment to providing our clients with the very best in design is matched only by Singapore Airlines’ commitment to offering the very best to their customers. Together, we have come up with a seat which sets new standards for Business Class travel.”

Ends

For more information or images, please contact Matt Grainger or Nicky Brown at Black Sheep Public Relations on +44 (0) 207 664 7817 or email nicky@blacksheeppr.com.

NOTES
About James Park Associates (JPA)

James Park Associates (JPA) was founded in 1982 as a design agency specialising in bespoke interiors and luxury environments. With offices in London and Singapore, much of JPA’s work has focused on the travel and hospitality industries. Projects have included the latest First Class seat for Japan Airlines 777-300ER fleet; redesigning Gulf Air’s aircraft interiors, livery, uniforms and passenger lounges; the Venice-Simplon Orient Express; the Eastern and Oriental Express; the Royal Scotsman; GNER fleet interior refit; the Taj Exotica Resort and Spa in both Mauritius and the Maldives; the Lake Palace Hotel in Udaipur, India; the Hilton Hotel in Kuching, Sarawak in East Malaysia; the current refurbishment of the Hotel Pierre in New York and work with a range of other prestigious hotels, restaurants and transport providers.


About the red dot awards
With over 7,000 entries from 60 countries, the annual red dot design award ranks among the largest design competitions worldwide. The competition is divided into two sections - product design and communication design - which are staged and adjudicated separately. Honourable mentions have been awarded for the first time this year and are given to those designs judged by red dot’s design experts to feature particularly successful design details.

 


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