Nukuness, surfaces of coziness

Abstract

This thesis explores the concept of warmth and coziness feeling perceived through visual, touch and hearing senses, in the context of acoustic objects development. The abstraction behind this concept derives from the Japanese word Nukumori (温もり), which defines a quality of soft comfort, built on personal experiences.

Through an introspective research on Nukuness perception, features are established and serve as inspiration for the design development, essentially focused on colours subtlety, an impression of gradient, vibrant texture, and a warm quietness sensation.

To counter the current impoverishment of sensory percep- tions due to sight supremacy, the Nukuness project pleads for an embodied aesthetic experience which needs a broader, holistic de- sign approach, aiming at a bodily perception of materials, objects and space. Reconnecting mind and body for a temporal and spatial awareness is one of the goals of my research.

On the border between product and textile design, this project follows a practice-led process where the product-based development is guided by textile thinking.

The result of the interpretation of personal Nukuness percep- tion into a design process is a collection of four felt acoustic objects for interiors, aiming to envelop the atmosphere in a warm and soft quietness. The visual and tactile characteristics that are colours, gradients and textures were expressed through haptic qualities, and the quietness aspect, translated into the acoustic objects’ function, which is the sound annoyance attenuation. In addition to a personal expression, this quest of calm is also responding to the harmful impacts on health and well-being that implicates today’s living environment context.

The objects were developed in collaboration with Innofusor, a Finnish design company specialized in acoustic products, for both public and private interiors. The wall hanging felt objects of the collection are big scale surface looking objects, playing on the border between surface and volume, textile and product, and aesthetics and function.

Since Nukuness term is open to a wide interpretation, this thesis work hopes to touch people and encourage them to make it their own, for an expansion of comfort and coziness-centered vision of design, and a global movement towards humanness, tenderness and warmth in our living environment and society.