In her bachelor's thesis »PRO:PER – Productivity Perspectives« in the area of expertise »Design Theory and Research«, Luna Smolka developed a material infrastructure for activating the body, in order to avert the profound consequences of the increasing collective lack of movement. Her thesis has been nominated for the Cologne Design Prize 2022.
–»The modern human lives in chairs.«
The norm of sitting in chairs, which needs to be critically evaluated, is causing the most severe health problems of our time and is destabilising the global health system. Particularly with regard to corona-induced immobility, it is obvious that a change in collective sitting behaviour is of central importance for a functioning society. To achieve this, new infrastructures must be created that promote individual body awareness and support regular changes in position. This is the intent of the work »PRO:PER«. It starts from the fundamental question of how artefacts and environments can be created that open up physiological and psychological alternatives to our sedentary society.
With the help of functional models on a scale of 1:1, modular systems were developed. They operate with different angles of inclination and thus dynamise the standing or sitting body. In a series of experiments, the modules were tested with test persons, evaluated in cooperation with physiotherapists and successively improved. The resulting design is a spatial installation at the intersection of architecture, product design and art. Assembled into a whole, the modular system creates a flexible model space that can be intensively experienced physically and aims to improve the physical and mental well-being of sitting and standing people in work processes.
The project is a collaboration with the physiotherapist and osteopath Ute Wolf.
With special thanks for the technical support: Sebastian Heilmann, Gerd Mies, Eduard Paal, Andre Freiha and Julius Walsch
Pictures: Luna Smolka
