The Adlerbert Research Foundation Jubilee Conference 22 November 2011 Gothenburg, Sweden

CREATING SUCCESSFUL & SUSTAINABLE SOCIETIES

Design and Neurology – artistic development and research

Kristina Sahlqvist Architect SIR/MSA, Visiting professor, HDK School of Design and Crafts, University of Gothenburg, Pamela Lindgren Designer MFA and Michael Nilsson Professor, the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg

“How can knowledge from basic research about effects of enriched environments on the healing of the brain lead to improved rehabilitation environments through explorative design methodology?”

The project is a scientific study using an experimental concept of enriched environments. It is a research and artistic development in collaboration between HDK, School of Design and Crafts, Gothenburg University with Kristina Sahlqvist, Architect SIR/MSA and Pamela Lindgren, Designer MFA and the Sahlgrenska University Hospital with Michael Nilsson, Professor and Director of Research at Sahlgrenska. The project was initiated by the hospital's Department of Rehabilitation, Neuroscience who stipulated that enriched environment presented in different contexts has a significant impact on the patients rehabilitation. The project concept has been designed in collaboration with architects and designers and the brain scientists and health professionals at the department 623, Högsbo. The unique interdisciplinary body of research and its conclusions reveals the impact that the hospital environment has on the recovery and improved sense of wellbeing. The purpose of this project has been to propose and indicate how future rehabilitation with environments, products and tools can be embodied in an artistic and sustainable development. We have therefore worked with the method of “Considerate Design ” (www.designmedomtanke.se) in a social, ecological and economic dimension of sustainable development and with a concept of redesign and new experimental ideas. At present, the collaborative study has resulted in a concept with a design and architectural plan for the Rehabilitation Department 623 at Sahlgrenska.

In the artistic part of the study we have produced a report and the design of seven products and furniture for wellbeing and participation. The full scale result is a sustainable study with two chairs which have been redesigned to create rocking chairs which incorporate heating pads in smart textiles and storage for canes and walking aids. A third chair features two wheels to aid short-distance movement. There is also a soft-edged table for interaction, a brace of smart textiles which include controls for the alarm, music volume, mp3 players and a hood.

Keywords: Sustainable development, design, neurology, enriched environment,collaboration.

DESIGN OCH NEUROFORSKNING
Visas på Röhsska museets butik & showroom 15 november – 27 november.
 

15 november – 27 november
DESIGN OCH NEUROFORSKNING
En miniutställning med möbelprototyper från ett forskningsprojekt utfört i samarbete mellan Högskolan för Design och Konsthantverk och Sahlgrenska universitetssjukhuset under ledning av Kristina Sahlqvist, Pamela Lindgren och Michael Nilsson.
Visas i Röhsska museets butik & showroom.

Smart design

Att design påverkar våra sinnen och kan hjälpa till i sjukvården är inget nytt. Nu har den smarta designen tagit ett steg till - eller vad kan man kalla värmealstrande koftor och samtalsskapande bord.

Vad sägs om en stickad kofta som kan utveckla värme och dessutom har en inbyggd mp3-spelare med trådlösa hörlurar i huvan?
Det är varken science fiction eller årets julklapp utan en del av ett forskningsprojekt som framhäver betydelsen av design inom sjukvården. Projektet är tvärvetenskapligt och bland de drivande finns inredningsarkitekten Kristina Sahlqvist, designern Pamela Lindgren och neurologen Michael Nilsson på Sahlgrenska.

Läs hela artikeln på GT Exptessen Kultur

Nordiska Kompaniet NK

Nordiska Kompaniet NK

Nordiska Kompaniet – Scen nr.29 på Kulturkalaset i Göteborg.
För andra året i rad blir NK en kulturkalas- scen under årets upplaga av Kulturkalaset i Göteborg. Varje dag mellan 17 – 21 augusti ställer fem formgivare ut sina verk på varuhuset. Det blir ett nytänkande i material med unika skulpturer, textilier och möbler.

Formgivarna och deras verk kan beskådas vid entrén Östra Hamngatan.
Onsdag 17 ...augusti – Maya Lundin.
Torsdag 18 augusti – Design for us.
Fredag 19 augusti – Brikolör
Lördag 20 augusti – Modern Times
Söndag 21 augusti – Annika Svensson

För Pamela Lindgren och Kristina Sahlqvist, duon bakom Design for Us, är människans livsmiljö i en hållbar utveckling det centrala för deras arbete. Pamela och Kristina arbetar gemensamt fram varje enskilt projekt och använder design både som verktyg och i processer. De betonar också vikten av samarbete över gränserna och bjuder därför in olika kunskapskompetenser som till exempel konstnärer, läkare, forskare och hantverkare.

– Där uppstår både oväntade och överraskande designlösningar som baserar sig på bred erfarenhet och kunskaper om funktioner och mänskliga behov.

För närvarande arbetar Design for us i ett långsiktigt forskningsprojekt tillsammans med hjärnforskare, neurologer och musiker där de undersöker, utvecklar och utformar inredning, möbler och produkter i sjukhusmiljö.

På NK visar Design for Us:

Gungstol

Bord för kommunikation

Smart textiles

Design for Us är arkitekten Kristina Sahlqvist SIR/MSA och designern Pamela Lindgren MFA/SVID. Kristina och Pamela har arbetat ihop i tre år och bland annat ställt ut på möbelmässan i Milano, på Röhsska museet och GöteborgsOperan.

Read Kerstin Sylwan’s article in Saving the Planet In Style!

Engaged design in Milan
- Sustainability isn’t trendy anymore.” During my stay in Milan i get to hear this phrase several times. The first time I only get surprised and dismiss it. I know better. There are so many designers working toward a more sustainable production and consumption today – compare it with five years ago, it’s a world of difference.
Take for example Design For Us, a design studio showing a collection of furniture made in collaboration with brain scientists with the intention to make patients recover quicker through a friendly hospital environment. The chairs and table are soft and light in a Nordic way, it is only when looking closer at them that it is evident that the ideas behind this project go deep.

- We wanted to keep the history of the past, so we reused the old chairs from the hospital and gave them a new life, says Kristina Sahlqvist one of the designers behind Design For Us.

Röhsska Design museum at the opening day interaction with audience!

Röhsska museet Vernissage day, Västra Götaland goes Milano goes Röhsska

VERNISSAGE Västra Götaland goes Milano goes Röhsska

Tuesday, May 17 · 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Röhsska museet Vasagatan 37-39 Göteborg, Sweden

Västra Götaland goes Milano goes Röhsska May 17!

Come and look at and try the re-designed chairs with smart textiles and a new table for dinner and communication. A unique project about furniture for well-being developed in collaboration with HDK, School of Design and Crafts, University of Gothenburg and the Sahlgrenska University Hospital.

Furniture design: Design for Us, Kristina Sahlqvist Architect SIR / MSA and Pamela Lindgren Designer MFA, SVID.

For more information: Design for Us

Milano furniture fair 2011 ended yesterday. We had a great time and made many new contacts! Our rocking chair was selected with one other chair as two of a kind chairs that Claudio Loria at Leclettico Art Gallery would like to expose in the gallery. We are honored and looking forward to what follows! The Milan television also paid us some attention!  

FURNITURE FAIR IN MILAN

Svensk Form presents “Swedish Love Stories” in Milan 12-17 april 2011
Design for Us are going to exhibit at the Furniture Fair in Milan - Furniture for wellbeing.
For the third consecutive year Svensk Form is organising the Swedish Love Stories exhibition during Milan’s Design Festival at the prestigious Superstudio Píu in the middle of Zona Tortona. Last year the focus was on Dalarna; this time we shine some light on Västra Götaland on an even larger and more ambitious scale.

Opening Party Tuesday 12 April, 20.00 – 23.00 – Invitation Only.
Ms Ruth Jacoby, the Ambassador of Sweden to Italy will inaugurate the exhibition together with the Director General of VisitSweden, Mr Thomas Bruhl, CEO of Svensk Form, Eva Kumlin and representatives from Västra Götaland.
Place: Superstudio Piu, Temporary museum for new design, Via Tortona #27, Milan

Photo Studio SEEK 

TABLE FOR COMMUNICATION
The social intercourse is an important part in a welcoming and vibrant rehabilitation department.

In a Considerate Design projects we have studied the need for a venue that encourages meetings with communication, conversation and exercise.

The table is designed to fit into a large kitchen and will be a communication place for socializing, work and exercise for patients, relatives and hospital staff. The table has a soft, organic form, is welcoming in its design and with room for many.

We have observed that conversations during meals may occur more readily between people sitting in the corner as opposed to placement on the facing page or next to each other. This table top with its many soft corners invites spontaneous conversation, work and exercise. The table top is planned to be sound absorbing, surface treatment and other materials is planned to be environmental approved.

Furniture and product design: Kristina Sahlqvist Architect SIR / MSA and Pamela Lindgren Designer MFA / SVID, Design for Us Smart Textiles in collaboration with Lena Berglin and Siw Eriksson, Swedish Quintex AB. Photography in collaboration with Sarah Cooper and Nina Gorfer, Studio SEEK Doctors and specialists in collaboration with Michael Nilsson, Director of Research at Sahlgrenska University Hospital.

Our project is mentioned in Sveriges Radio  "MONDAY 21 FEBRUARY

Researchers at Sahlgrenska University Hospital investigate how an extra stimulating care “enriched” environment can accelerate the rehabilitation of severely ill patients.
Design for Us in collaboration with HDK the School of Design and Crafts has developed seven new products that could be used in connection with rehabilitation. "

TEDxGöteborg - Björn Vickhoff - Music and Rehabilitation
A researcher we are collaborating with in TED.com Björn was a professional singer-songwriter, until the interest of why music moves us physically and emotionally, took over. He wrote a dissertation in musicology about music perception and emotion. Today he is a researcher at Cerebral Brain Repair at Gothenburg University Hospital.