Insert Human Being here

Anastasija focuses her attention on areas with very real currency within the contemporary design scene. Biophilia and human centred design—a concern for creating objects and spaces which facilitate the needs of real live, diverse, frustrating, complex, unpredictable and unique human beings. For as long as there has been a professionalised design industry, practitioners have payed homage to the abstracted “User” as the focus of their activities. In ergonomics manuals filled with statistical data for every conceivable rationalised situation. Design for a homogenised, faceless, human drone, for whom Chair+Desk+Cubicle=happy and productive worker. In the 21st century however, this is no longer enough, as our day to day lives have become more and more technically complex, fragmented and abstracted, so the focus has shifted to ways in which design can support the human-organism reconnected to the rhythms and patterns of the natural and the organic. So the designer must now ask ‘What do actual humans need?’ The answer: Complexity and Simplicity, Variety and Uniformity, Stimulus and Quiet (not too much), Focus and Distraction (just enough). Light, Views, Colours, Pattern, Personal space, Social space, 3rd spaces (somewhere in-between). A whole boatload of non-specifics in fact. So this is the challenge, how to pull from such disparate and conflicting requirements, functionally appropriate and visually resolved solutions for workplaces and public spaces. Responding broadly to these concerns, Anastasija’s project is a semi enclosed concentration pod which allows for multiple uses and supports multiple functionalities. A visually gentle, ovoid form, dressed with natural materials and textures, to be used as an individual reclining space or an intimate meeting or brainstorming hub. A statement piece for offices or public spaces where the central intention is abundantly clear—“Insert Human Being here”.