Disconnect
Environmental Design
This project is a speculative thesis which presents a new kind of spatial experience in a form of an alternative reality by disconnecting from the virtual space and bring the attention back to the body. This project amplifies sensory perception and becomes this new environment where there is a desire to free your body as a way to disconnect your mind.
Digital detoxing helps the mind to casually drift from one sensory experience to another.
Project Details
Studio
Future Environments - Design Fiction & Speculative Design
Mentors
Ala Roushan, Carlos Jarvis
Digital Detox
Humanity is becoming increasingly dependent on the digital world. Everything is controlled by technology which has left human beings feeling dizzy and breathless. The world has turned into a mix of reality and virtual where having a physical body is not sufficient to experience the feeling of having a body.
There is a lack of face-to-face communication, everyone is cooped up in front of screens all day and not getting enough fresh air. This isolation will result in self-identity crisis, lack of creativity, more anxiety, more depression and overall destruction of mind and body.
For many people being connected and immersed in the digital world is a part of their everyday life. Detoxing from digital devices is a healthy way to focus on real life. It helps in experiencing our own quiet peace and strength. As the noise of crazy virtual fades, our mind calms and we experience silence and stillness. It is an opportunity to reconnect with ourselves.
Organic Extension
Different Sensory Experience
Structural Growth Pattern
Substructure
- Attached to the building
- Made of CarbonFibre
- Give structural stability
- Installed to the existing architecture
Pods Growth
- Attached to the substructure
- Growth affected by wind and solar energy
- Forms both enclosed and open pods
- Layered with mycelium and moss
Different functions and ideas that animates this space helps in amplifying the sensory experience that a human body requires to disconnect from digital space and bring the attention back to the body. The functions that layers this space will turn it into a therapeutic space. The functions are inspired from nature and the experience will feel like the body is completely relaxed.
Overall, a space where people can have different sensory experiences where they feel like they are floating in the air surrounded by vegetation is growing around them. They feel relaxed. A space where they can go and just sit there in different positions and escape for a little while. A space that makes they feel like they are entering a different planet with theirsenses enhances and mind relaxed.
MYCELIUM & LICHEN Layering the Space
Mycelium is insulating, fire-resistant, acoustical, structurally strong, lightweight and can be coaxed to build predictable structures by controlling temperatures, humidity and airflow which influence the growth of tissue. It can create architecture that become indistinguishable from nature.
Lichen seems like its from another planet. It is beautiful, survives in harsh weather, convers carbon dioxide into oxygen, its abundant, and it absorbs pollutants.
It could be dispersed all over the city and stretch and connect itself like a living organism. It becomes an extension of a living unit and essentially, extension of the mind where this beautiful web of mycelium and moss amplifies sensory perception.
Overall, these spaces are all about how to bring back your attention onto your physical body.
It is a digital detox that deals with different realities of our bodies.
Process Work
As I was working on my Undergraduate Thesis over the course of a full academic year, I had accumulated a lot of process work. I chose to create a process book that highlighted some of the process behind how I reached the final result to show the thought process behind the work.
If you would like to see more of the thinking behind this project please email me at grewaltriman@gmail.com