After having a feedback session and discussing what I aimed to do with this brief I got back a couple of points of feedback of potential directions to go in. A suggestion was to make an app that could help people better manage their time as of course stress can often be down to not managing your time well enough. The problem with this though, that other people even suggested, is that if you don't manage your time well enough in the first place the likelihood of downloading an app to do so isn't so high.
Some people did like the idea of having a place to isolate the individual and to get away from distractions and noise of the busy work environment, although some made the argument that they wouldn't always use this as a get away from stress. They made a point that they wouldn't typically nap or meditate. I think this is where part of the problem lies and where my piece needs to fill the gap. I need to inform people about the benefits of napping and meditation in reducing stress whilst creating a physical solution for them to do so rather than just creating the product itself. I think this is where the branding of the solution will come into play, branding this in such a way that promotes these two whilst also the product.
Napping has been proven in plenty of studies to help benefit people by restoring alertness, increasing productivity and preventing burnout during a busy work day/week. Which is why I think incorporating a solution for napping within the working environment could be a way of reducing stress.
Whilst the solution would give people the option to nap to recharge themselves, it would also be an option for people to meditate. Meditation has been proven to reduce stress along with plenty of other health and well being benefits, which is why I believe that there should be somewhere to do so in private.
MetroNaps
Metronaps is just one of many solutions to the problem of tiredness and stress, which can often go hand in hand, one a result of the other. These chairs are designed to allow people to nap for up to 20 minutes to recharge and reset themselves on the go. They have been a growing feature of places such as offices, hospitals, universities and airports over the recent years and for good reason; they can improve people's overall health and well being.
The idea of creating a pod for isolation I thought could work perfectly as a proposed solution for my issue, this opens up the opportunity to have multiple units of these within a single studio. I could also incorporate some elements of my previous research into environmental design that reduce stress such as lighting, materials, ergonomics etc.
Idea 1
I had roughly three ideas of how I could create this 'isolation chamber' if you will and open it up for use for students within the university. The first and most obvious to me was to create a separate room entirely where these pods would sit, it's something students can book in and out of as they please, a quiet room, that would dimly lit with deep coloured lights and temperature controls for optimal comfort and stress reduction. Each person could use a pod for a short period of isolation away from all the noise and distractions of the working environment.
Pros
- An enclosed room leaves no opportunity for distraction, no talking or phones meaning complete quiet isolation for the individuals.
- The size of the pods wouldn't be so much of an issue as it would be designing these to be implemented into an already existing studio.
Cons
- This realistically would only be possible for new and upcoming buildings that have allotted space for pods. Older builders would struggle to implement a completely new room for the pods.
Idea 2
The problem with my first idea was what led me onto my second idea was to put these pods into already existing work environments such as our studio, this seems more feasible as it would be much easier to create space for a couple of pods rather than an entire new room for them.
Pros
- Allows students within each studio to take time out whenever they please and with ease, rather than having to visit another room entirely
Cons
- Could potentially be noisy with them being places within a working environment.
- Depending on the size of the pods, it may require a big amount of space
Idea 3
Seen as though the size of these pods could potentially be an issue it led me onto my third idea which was to create something that would be individual to each person. Although a very rough idea, it would be something along the lines of a pod that would fit over the person's head/shoulders just to isolate them from the visual and audible noise surrounding them.
Pros
- Wouldn't require any space within the studio like the previous ideas
- Cheap, easy solution to create isolation for the individual
Cons
- It would require the students to buy them
- Or even if the university bought a set amount of them and lent them out on loan, the typical issues of a loaning system would arise such as not having enough for students when they may need it, people returning it late/damaged etc.
- Doesn't create full isolation like the pods would, you may still feel exposed to the noisy environment.
After reviewing my ideas amongst other peers, it was suggested that idea 2 would be be the most reasonable one as although it would take up space within the studio, there would be ways to reduce the impact it has on the space. There are a few things I need to take into consideration with this idea:
- It needs to be cost effective so it's affordable for the universities to buy multiple units
- Ideally needs to be space saving, so it minimises the amount space it takes up within the studio
- Needs to be adaptable, so that it doesn't just have one use just so if it's not in use for complete isolation it can at least be used as a comfortable seating option.
This gave me an idea to take inspiration from IKEA and create an almost flatpack style product as I feel their products are usually easy to put up and take down and are a cheap furniture alternative.
Initial ideas for the pod
My initial visual idea for the pod came in the form of an egg, this is because I feel it would fit best to the shape of a person sat upright. When not in use it can be used as a comfortable seat and then when someone feels they want isolation from the surrounding noise they can pull over the top of the pod to close it.
After reviewing the shape of the egg it could have potentially cause problems or at the very least made it harder work to figure out the details of the product to make it work smoothly. Instead using a regular sphere shape seemed more appropriate as it's a more even shape to work with.
Considering that I wanted to go with an easy to construct, affordable IKEA style of furniture I had to figure out some way of make the seat itself easy to deconstruct and pack away. The pull down cover itself at this point is something that can easily be packed away as it folds in on itself, but as for the solid basin of the chair itself, the spherical shape of the chair itself was not something that could be easily folded away. The solution I came up with was the deconstruct the chair itself into smaller pieces, like segments in a way, that could lie on their side and be able to be packed away into a rectangular flat pack box.
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| How I imagine the pieces be packed away |
The dimensions of the pod take into account the average height, depth and width of both men and women with then added space to for clearance and comfort so it doesn't feel to cramped. This would have to maybe be adjusted through the development stage of creating it if I was to produce a model of it.
Sources:
Meditation reduces stress - http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/str/12/2/164/ &
http://journals.lww.com/psychosomaticmedicine/Abstract/2000/09000/A_Randomized,_Wait_List_Controlled_Clinical_Trial_.4.aspx
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