Gabi Olsen

Controlling our Body’s Invisible Boundaries to Live Comfortably in Today’s World / Gabi Olsen

Senior Capstone II | Spring ‘21

Why? In today’s world we think differently about how we interact with people, spaces and now more than ever, the lack of space.

We have begun to see that the more we cover ourselves the safer we feel, protected and hidden away from our surroundings.

Sometimes the uncertainty of public spaces makes us want to stay in the comfort of our homes and not be exposed to the malestorms of life.

Why do we find our homes the most comfortable and safe?

This is ultimately because we can control the environment in our homes, it is ours, it wraps us and encompasses our bodies fully.

Now how can we bring those elements of privacy out into the public, and wrap our bodies in them.

How can we start to create an environment for our bodies that is typically articulated by invisible boundaries, and begin to articulate them with material and thresholds.

I began to look at ways in which we protect the body in terms of coverage and in what ways covering ourselves truly seperates us from our surroundings.

Personal Space is Private Space is Safe Space Private space is now being determined by how much we cover each other and ourselves.

The goal is to encompass the body in such a way that it creates a small piece of tranquility in the midst of a busy world, in order to get people backout into the public while also providing a harbor for their bodies in times of need such as privacy, personal pause, relief and seclusion for safety.

/ redefine

How Do We Cover Ourselves Now?

By adding more and more layers between ourselves and our surroundings we start to achieve a certain level of comfort. We tend to do this act of layering and covering in public places to block out the unwanted and to make the small amount of personal space we have in public, feel more like ours.

/ redefine

How Should We Protect the Body?

We begin to look at ways in which we protect the body in terms of coverage. / What does the body need to be covered with. / When does the body need to be covered. / Where does ithe body need to be covered. / How much does the body need to be covered. / Why does the body need to be covered.

/ articulate

Self-Structured Envelope Creating a self-structured material was how I would be able to achieve the different types and levels of privacy while also allowing it to be collapsable in order for it to be portable, all while using a lightweight fabric that would be easy to use. By folding a material into an origami pattern it creates structural properties that allow the material to stand on it’s own. It also creates new properties such as expanding and compressing, opaquness and flexability.

After studying the ways in which different folding techniques effected these properties, I was able to create my own pattern that would best encompass the body and provide the different qualities of space to achieve privacy. Then, by exploding these origami gemoetries into triangular units I was able to reach maximum adjustability with this new material.

Areas highlighted in green show which sections of the material are used to create the structural portion.

/ articulate

Functions of the Material FINAL FABRICATED MATERIAL / shown in flattened form

FINAL FABRICATED MATERIAL / shown with origami implementation

A. allows for adjustability, used to cover less areas of the body, or to make material more opaque in given area B. used to expand or collapse material for more / less coverage as well as collapsing into its portable form C. allows user to pull material over head to provide more coverage

/ articulate

The Duo 1

CARRIED BY YOU The material below is intended to be a personal object that you carry with you just like you would carry an umbrella if you knew it were to rain that day, or a pair of headphones when anticipating a noisey subway car.

2 PROVIDED BY THEM The frame kit above would be provided by cities and buisnesses. They would attatch this frame set to existing conditions such as window mullions or structural pieces of given architecture. The user would then attach their material into the frame pieces and slide it through different parts of the frame to achieve varying levels of coverage.

/ articulate

Kit of Parts

The frame was designed as a kit of parts configuration so that the sites it would be applied to wouldn’t be limited by size or shape of the frame.

The hope for a universal-type frame was that it would be able to be used in enough places so that wherever a person would go, they would be almost guaranteed to have a plug-in point for their covering material.

/ articulate

Plug-In Points & Adjustability

Each segment of the frame kit includes a plug-in point opening which is where the user would connect their material to the frame. The connecting component on their material slides into a channel embedded in the frame. One frame includes two channels so that it can be used by a neighboring occupant needing to attach their material at the same time.

LINEAR

COMPRESS

EXPAND

ORIGAMI

COMPRESS

ROTATE

/ demand

User Process

2

1

3

Being in control of your environment makes you feel more comfortable in a space. The adjustability of this material allows one to be in control of their new subenvironment, created when wrapping themselves, therefore feeling more comfortable when in public. By having this adjustable layer around you dedicated to separating you from noise, light and people, you can choose what you are creating a threshold for. You can let in more light if needed, or concentrate the material to one side that needs more noise dampening.

2

4

/ demand

Privacy & Protection

SOUND At times too many overlapping chaotic sounds can be overwhelming in a public setting, by using layered fabric it provides noise reducing properties to help dampen that around you. When pulling this fabric around you, one will start to feel a sense of peacefulness as if they’re slightly turning the volume down on the world around them.

LIGHT Seeing that light is one of the main qualities that allow a space to feel private and the occupant to feel secluded from the rest, this material provides sun shading properties in order to give you that feeling of separation in public spaces.

Sites

Public transportation is typically known for being spaces that are over populated, packed with numerous sources of loud nosies and people in a rush. A lot of times, people try to avoid these areas if possible to avoid the stress of being in physical and mental disarray.

Bus Stops Bus stops can become crowded and busy when waiting for a city bus to pick up its passengers. The rail piece of the track system would attach to the horizontal structural beam on the bus stop enclosure. The city would provide the frame pieces, allowing them to have an influence on how many people would be allowed to sit in the enclosure which has the possibility to enforce social distancing measures if needed.

Subways Subways are known for being one of the spaces where all concepts of personal space is thrown out of the window, whether or not it’s by choice. The rail would be attached inbetween the two sides of the bench frame posts.

Airports Airports are one of the only fully interior public spaces for transportation that can get busy, crowded and quite overwhelming for some. In this scenario the rail would attach to existing window mullions at either a low height for seated occupants or at a taller height for those who stand when no seats are available.

Thank You / Gabi Olsen

olsen.gabi98@gmail.com