ReLounge ~ An immersive re-generation zone for global air travelers : body
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How did this design improve life?:
Public air transport shrinks the world and airports have become important connecting points all around the world. People move faster and faster and often forget to unplug and reflect upon where they are and the quality of their environment. Urbanism has gone beyond the city it has become worldwide. ‘Being in transit’ has become a keyword in the culture of the modern global citizen - the frequent traveler.
We dream of traveling instantly, as if by magic, but the reality is that air transit is often more a vacuum of waiting. Traveling to new destinations involves mobility, transit, and boredom. We long for a way to make the transit space between arrival and departure something besides a ‘wasted-time zone’ where boredom and discomfort play the leading roles.
In recent years, there have been increasing complaints from both passengers and crew that the cabin air on commercial flights is deficient. Particularly flight passengers on long-haul routes have registered a myriad of complaints including headache, fatigue, fever and respiratory difficulties among many others.
It is proved that air travel can cause medical problems related to changes in air pressure, reduced oxygen, turbulence, jet lag and psychological or physical stress. Though considering these conditions very few would prevent a person from flying.
With the increasing air travel from a wide range of users, I argue that there will be, and is, an increasing problem to solve regarding the stress factors of mind and body when traveling. These factors links to other scenarios such as for example work, which some has to resume when arriving to desired destination. As quoted from an interviewed, “… as soon as I arrive I have to be in perfect shape! If my body does not function, my mind can’t either…”
ReLounge acts as a touch down zone between landing and take-off for its travelers to stay in transit and recover from the physical and physiological stress they have been exposed to while being on the plane, before they again resume their journey.
With the factor of stress in mind ReLounge was designed to restore the frequent traveler and provide a moment of relaxation for body and mind.
Public air transport shrinks the world and airports have become important connecting points all around the world. People move faster and faster and often forget to unplug and reflect upon where they are and the quality of their environment. Urbanism has gone beyond the city it has become worldwide. ‘Being in transit’ has become a keyword in the culture of the modern global citizen - the frequent traveler.
We dream of traveling instantly, as if by magic, but the reality is that air transit is often more a vacuum of waiting. Traveling to new destinations involves mobility, transit, and boredom. We long for a way to make the transit space between arrival and departure something besides a ‘wasted-time zone’ where boredom and discomfort play the leading roles.
In recent years, there have been increasing complaints from both passengers and crew that the cabin air on commercial flights is deficient. Particularly flight passengers on long-haul routes have registered a myriad of complaints including headache, fatigue, fever and respiratory difficulties among many others.
It is proved that air travel can cause medical problems related to changes in air pressure, reduced oxygen, turbulence, jet lag and psychological or physical stress. Though considering these conditions very few would prevent a person from flying.
With the increasing air travel from a wide range of users, I argue that there will be, and is, an increasing problem to solve regarding the stress factors of mind and body when traveling. These factors links to other scenarios such as for example work, which some has to resume when arriving to desired destination. As quoted from an interviewed, “… as soon as I arrive I have to be in perfect shape! If my body does not function, my mind can’t either…”
ReLounge acts as a touch down zone between landing and take-off for its travelers to stay in transit and recover from the physical and physiological stress they have been exposed to while being on the plane, before they again resume their journey.
With the factor of stress in mind ReLounge was designed to restore the frequent traveler and provide a moment of relaxation for body and mind.
Name of Designer(s):
Line Ulrika Christiansen
Line Ulrika Christiansen
Designers professional status:
Professional
Professional
Status of realization:
Realized
Realized
Kind of design:
Tangible
Tangible
Year of production, realization or publishing:
2003
2003
Designed in country:
Italy
Italy
Used on continents:
Entire World
Entire World
Short description of design:
ReLounge is an experiential space that provides re-generation to air travelers through relaxing and playful sensorial experiences of destination related images, sounds and colors that travelers can activate through movements and a reactive pillow, the ‘dreamPillow’.
The ‘Chillout Room’ used is a pre-existing design by David Sevoir, courtesy ‘roominteriorproducts’, Almere, The Netherlands.
ReLounge is an experiential space that provides re-generation to air travelers through relaxing and playful sensorial experiences of destination related images, sounds and colors that travelers can activate through movements and a reactive pillow, the ‘dreamPillow’.
The ‘Chillout Room’ used is a pre-existing design by David Sevoir, courtesy ‘roominteriorproducts’, Almere, The Netherlands.
Functionallity and use of design:
ReLounge is designed for a single user experience that with the use of an ID card is able to remember each users preferences to enable a personalized experience. All transferred to the ReLounge via the ‘touchDown’, a custom designed card-reader transmitting the data to the ReLounge space, creating the personalized experience.
ReLounge is designed for a single user experience that with the use of an ID card is able to remember each users preferences to enable a personalized experience. All transferred to the ReLounge via the ‘touchDown’, a custom designed card-reader transmitting the data to the ReLounge space, creating the personalized experience.
Drawbacks of life improvement:
As a general idea of life improvement I don’t see any drawbacks in the idea itself, though the proposed design may not be appropriate for all business travelers because of its main form as well as their individual needs.
The usage of the existing ‘chill-out room’ has strongly affected my design and the prototyped design of the two objects, the dreamPillow and the touchDown is created with an attempt to have a personality of their own but still correspond with the space itself as it appears now in the prototype. Because of the very dominant look I have chosen a rather futuristic look for the prototype that will need to be revised for a real setting where the surroundings of the existing architecture needs to be taken into account. But I also believe that in order to evoke a new concept for a real world implementation it is important to present an ‘eye-opener’ that can act as a appetizer at first before fitting the concept to the actual setting.
An interesting outcome from the surveys of the World Bank was the frequent traveler’s need to be in contact with his/hers family. This actually showed to stress down the traveler when an easy access for communication was available. ReLounge currently lacks this ability of communication between users and their loved ones.
This desire is surely something that has to be taken into account and different ways should be explored how best to design such a need. Perhaps a design that is able to connect not only family and friends but also with the other visitors of the ReLounges.
For a real scenario to function there needs to be an organized service handling and supporting of the traveler. I recognize the importance of such both in enhancing the experience for the user from arriving to departing, ordering and paying, as well as a sustainable market plan that will enable a calculated cost to present for future clients.
As a general idea of life improvement I don’t see any drawbacks in the idea itself, though the proposed design may not be appropriate for all business travelers because of its main form as well as their individual needs.
The usage of the existing ‘chill-out room’ has strongly affected my design and the prototyped design of the two objects, the dreamPillow and the touchDown is created with an attempt to have a personality of their own but still correspond with the space itself as it appears now in the prototype. Because of the very dominant look I have chosen a rather futuristic look for the prototype that will need to be revised for a real setting where the surroundings of the existing architecture needs to be taken into account. But I also believe that in order to evoke a new concept for a real world implementation it is important to present an ‘eye-opener’ that can act as a appetizer at first before fitting the concept to the actual setting.
An interesting outcome from the surveys of the World Bank was the frequent traveler’s need to be in contact with his/hers family. This actually showed to stress down the traveler when an easy access for communication was available. ReLounge currently lacks this ability of communication between users and their loved ones.
This desire is surely something that has to be taken into account and different ways should be explored how best to design such a need. Perhaps a design that is able to connect not only family and friends but also with the other visitors of the ReLounges.
For a real scenario to function there needs to be an organized service handling and supporting of the traveler. I recognize the importance of such both in enhancing the experience for the user from arriving to departing, ordering and paying, as well as a sustainable market plan that will enable a calculated cost to present for future clients.
Research and need:
It is now over three years since September 11 and we are back to business as usual. But it is not as usual as it used to be. Perspectives have become much clearer and the focus on the humane, I believe has become more apparent.
Even after the international tragedy it is clear that that aviation is the current solution for global travel and the closest we get to the sensation of getting beamed from one place to another considering speed and time. People are and will still travel by air in large numbers. Over the last two decades travel has increased with a spectacular growth. Now nearly six hundred million airline passengers travel a year and the number of business travelers continues to increase rapidly.
In the research I looked at the current usage of aviation as well as the predicted future one. How the social trends and dynamics of western life shape new conditions, both better and worse, that needs to be addressed. These conditions being medial, security, comfort, time and space.
Social Trends; The forecast of international passengers is predicted to reach 971 million by year 2016, an increase of 315 million passengers over the next ten years.
A main reason for this tendency is coming from the international business travel that has become an enormous business of its own. Large companies like the World Bank, based in Washington D.C., send about 5000 consultants on more than 18000 overseas missions a year, resulting in a collective number of 250.000 days spend away from home for their employees. This is the largest number of business travelers from a single organization.
The traveler; The predicted replacement of business travel with telecommunications, like teleconferencing has not lived up to its predictions and one can question if it ever will. In spite companies having got fast technological connectivity, business travel has still increased. One could argue that travel will be reduced in the future due to technological connectivity but we are more technologically connected than ever before and still travel is increasing.
The fact is that personal contact is still highly appreciated simply because eye-to-eye contact brings better understanding and leads to more productivity and efficiency. With video conferencing, the body language is fragmented and the whole intuitive understanding is left out.
The medical condition; Several studies were made to find out whether stress was an increased condition comparing the work-related traveler to their non-travelers. I found an unexpectedly increase in stress-related psychological disorders which increased linearly with the number of missions traveled and showed almost three times the amount to those of non-travelers.
Through the survey and studies conducted by the World Bank and presented at the International Travel Health Symposium I can conclude that a continuous increase of travel is a fact and the frequent traveler are mostly traveling for business. With this factor and the knowledge of stress as a result of this tendency I have found an area where there is an important human issue to address, that of the frequent travelers ability to relief stress while on the move.
It is now over three years since September 11 and we are back to business as usual. But it is not as usual as it used to be. Perspectives have become much clearer and the focus on the humane, I believe has become more apparent.
Even after the international tragedy it is clear that that aviation is the current solution for global travel and the closest we get to the sensation of getting beamed from one place to another considering speed and time. People are and will still travel by air in large numbers. Over the last two decades travel has increased with a spectacular growth. Now nearly six hundred million airline passengers travel a year and the number of business travelers continues to increase rapidly.
In the research I looked at the current usage of aviation as well as the predicted future one. How the social trends and dynamics of western life shape new conditions, both better and worse, that needs to be addressed. These conditions being medial, security, comfort, time and space.
Social Trends; The forecast of international passengers is predicted to reach 971 million by year 2016, an increase of 315 million passengers over the next ten years.
A main reason for this tendency is coming from the international business travel that has become an enormous business of its own. Large companies like the World Bank, based in Washington D.C., send about 5000 consultants on more than 18000 overseas missions a year, resulting in a collective number of 250.000 days spend away from home for their employees. This is the largest number of business travelers from a single organization.
The traveler; The predicted replacement of business travel with telecommunications, like teleconferencing has not lived up to its predictions and one can question if it ever will. In spite companies having got fast technological connectivity, business travel has still increased. One could argue that travel will be reduced in the future due to technological connectivity but we are more technologically connected than ever before and still travel is increasing.
The fact is that personal contact is still highly appreciated simply because eye-to-eye contact brings better understanding and leads to more productivity and efficiency. With video conferencing, the body language is fragmented and the whole intuitive understanding is left out.
The medical condition; Several studies were made to find out whether stress was an increased condition comparing the work-related traveler to their non-travelers. I found an unexpectedly increase in stress-related psychological disorders which increased linearly with the number of missions traveled and showed almost three times the amount to those of non-travelers.
Through the survey and studies conducted by the World Bank and presented at the International Travel Health Symposium I can conclude that a continuous increase of travel is a fact and the frequent traveler are mostly traveling for business. With this factor and the knowledge of stress as a result of this tendency I have found an area where there is an important human issue to address, that of the frequent travelers ability to relief stress while on the move.
