AquaChamber + Aquanaut's Slumber

Feb 2023

Barnard + Columbia Architecture Department, Architectural Design: Environments & Mediations

Course Leader: Lindsay Harkema

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Project 0/1 Brief: CareWear / CareSpace

A transitional object is an item, often a toy or stuffed animal, that provides psychological comfort and security to a child as they develop and gain awareness of the world. Contemporary psychology and neuroinclusive discourse extends the significance of physical tactility and sensory stimulation to the emotional experience of people of all ages, and an important component of how they perceive their surroundings and interact socially with others.

For Project 0, students will create a wearable device designed to mediate between the user and their environment, facilitating comfort, sensory awareness and tactile perception. As a continuation of this work in Project 1, students will expand the object into a small occupiable volume designed as space of care and a mediator between the individual and their surrounding environment at large.

 

Readings:

• Audre Lorde,”Poetry is Not a Luxury” and “Transformation of Silence into Action” in The Selected Works of Audre Lorde, ed. Roxane Gay, 2020, p. 3-14

• Joan Tronto, “Caring Architecture”

• Juhani Pallasmaa, Eyes of the Skin, pp.18-22,43-63

• Ackerman, Joshua M., Christopher C. Nocera, John A. Bargh. “Incidental Haptic Sensations Influence Social

  Judgments and Decisions,” Science. Vol. 328, 2010, p. 1712-1715.

 

The feeling of being underwater relaxs me. Whether it is that five minutes of zoning out in a hot shower, a lap swimming session in the pool, or lying on a floatie in the ocean- water is a medium of care and meditation. It provides a relief, a safe space, to reconnect with our bodily and spiritual selves. Hence, for this project, I chose to explore how that experience can be emulated through the design of a space (AquaChamber) and wearable device (Aquanaut's Slumber).

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