OTO The Hugging Chair
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Project Description
Cabinetmaker and designer, my 8 years of workshop experience have helped me to balance aesthetics and feasibility to focus on people needs and their uses. I have designed an armchair that meets the hugging needs of autistic people. This prototype integrates an innovative mechanism in an aesthetic piece of furniture. OTO was co-designed with autistic people and medico-educational team. The chair has been designed for and by its users to create a product that is useful, usable and utilized.
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EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
During my studies, I designed and made innovative furniture to improve the quality of life of autistic children who have sensory difficulties.
Many autistic people have sensory difficulties. Noise, light, physical contact can be a real challenge in everyday life, an aggression and a source of discomfort. These sensory overloads have a significant impact on the behaviour of people with autism, their communication and their ability to concentrate.
If these difficulties are taken into account and their environment is adapted, then people with autism can be available for learning, for different activities of daily life and better interact with others.
To compensate for this sensory deficit and to cope with stimuli from the outside world, autistic people regularly feel the need to be hugged, to be held very tightly (according to studies this concerns between 40 and 90% of people with autism spectrum disorders). Deep pressure helps them to become more aware of their body, to feel more peaceful and to be better in their environment.
The problem is that there are very few solutions today that allow people to feel deep pressure effectively and appropriately, or else they are devices that look like instruments of torture like Dr Temple Grandin's squeeze machine.
I designed the OTO solution, the hugging chair, to meet the needs of people with autism spectrum disorder. (1% of the world population).
This cocoon-shaped chair has inner walls that inflate and create deep pressure on the person's upper and lower body. The embrace can be managed autonomously thanks to an adapted remote control with pictograms. For the companion, a tablet can be connected to the chair to personalise the level of pressure according to the needs of each person and to follow the use of the chair live.
The sensory experience of this chair is also beneficial to people with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's (more than 6 million people in Europe).
Key objectives for sustainability
From the outset of designing this product, the aim was to have a chair that was soothing and comforting in its functionality and comfort, and that was also sustainable in ecological terms and economically viable.
I chose to build the hugging chair from wood, unlike many therapeutic devices or medical furniture made from plastic. The first prototype I designed and built, as part of my final year project, is made of beech, a type of wood that comes from French forests.
From the beginning of the project, I chose to develop it with local companies and by staying in direct contact with the end user. Working directly with expert suppliers allowed me to design in a more pragmatic and therefore more ecological way. My approach with the target users is inspired by design thinking to produce a functional prototype quickly and to check that the concept meets the needs. I am attached to the fact of creating useful, usable and used furniture and these tests allowed me, together with the medical-educational team, to validate the usefulness of the chair for autistic people.
This chair contains a pneumatic system controlled by an electronic card. In order to reduce the chair's consumption, I worked with companies producing solenoid valves, which enabled me to halve the chair's consumption. The electronics integrated into the chair are based on a fully programmable card that allows adaptation to changes in the use of the chair to be embraced.
The objective is to make it durable in its use by being modular and growing with the needs of its users. Intended for people with autistic disorders, neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer and Parkinson), the aim is not to buy and force consumption according to each age (3 years to 99+) but to adapt to its user thanks to a kit of cushions that can be adapted according to the size of the child to senior, like a booster seat in a car. The aim is to reduce costs for the user.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Medical furniture generally lacks aesthetics, can be stigmatising and a daily reminder to users, families and carers of the difficulties encountered. The hugging chair has been designed to be aesthetically pleasing and welcoming with the aim of inclusion. The chair is designed for people with autism but it is intended to be usable and attractive to all audiences. It is suitable for adults, elderly people and children thanks to its footrest.
Thanks to its cocoon shape, OTO offers privacy and gives a reassuring effect and a feeling of security. The interior upholstery of the chair provides a muffled acoustic, so that you can concentrate on your own body and isolate yourself from the outside world, for a moment of calm that is essential for us all.
People with autism are particularly sensitive to the feel of different materials. The shell of the chair is made of wood, with inlays of scratch, felt and rough materials. This creates a graphic setting and is also a sensory journey that invites touch and helps to familiarise oneself with the chair.
The aim of the chair is to allow a maximum number of users to use it autonomously in order to meet their own sensory needs. The pictogram remote control allows the user to control the level of embrace at the chest and leg level separately.
Key objectives for inclusion
The hugging chair aims to meet the sensory needs of people with autism and to facilitate their inclusion. Today, the sensory vulnerability of autistic people is no longer in question, as shown by the place of sensory disorders in the diagnostic criteria for autism. OTO can be used in many ways: as a reinforcer, in a Snoezelen room or as part of sensory integration work.
The hugging chair responds to a recognised need and would facilitate the inclusion of autistic people in different public and private environments, notably thanks to its non-stigmatising aestheticism which moves away from medical furniture. One of the objectives of the French government is the inclusion of people with invisible disabilities such as autism from an early age in educational establishments and for adults accessibility to employment in ordinary environments.
The huggable chair is designed for and by its users: Indeed, people with autism have been integrated since the beginning of this project: First, to understand their daily life and their needs (useful furniture), to test and improve the prototype (usable furniture) and to validate the impact or the effect of the chair (used furniture). The integration of users in the design process has allowed me to improve the feeling of noise or light emitted by the chair and to understand what is acceptable or manageable for a person with an autism spectrum disorder. This approach will allow me to produce furniture that is useful, usable and used.
The product has been designed to be easy to use for everyone and to be independent. The chair is easy to use thanks to its very simple and adapted remote control with its pictograms. The user controls the embrace at the chest and leg level. The hug should not be applied as in a restraint device or as in psychiatric shock treatment (see: Packing). The seated position of the user of the hugging chair allows them to remain in control of their body and open to the environment, so that the hug is a choice.
Innovative character
OTO The hugging chair is innovative because very few hugging products exist on the market. Few designers are interested in the needs of autistic people because of a lack of knowledge of this invisible disability.
People with autism and their carers are at a loss when faced with the lack of devices to meet the need to hug. The current solutions for feeling the limits of one's body are to be held tightly in one's arms or to be pinned to the ground by the weight of another person, or to lie down under a mattress or to use carpenter's clamps.
These solutions, based on feedback, are unsatisfactory and unsuitable. OTO, the hugging chair, is innovative because it meets this need in an ethical manner and with the user's control in a sensory integration process. Users, families and the medical team confirm that it is important to have access to beautiful and non-stigmatising therapeutic furniture to contribute to the soothing effect. The hug should not be compared to an instrument of torture. (The squeeze thing by Dr Temple Grandin)
OTO is innovative in the hugging system. Most hugging devices are based on passive compression systems (e.g. weighted blanket or foam compression canoe) which greatly limit the force felt by the user. Thanks to its inflatable mechanism, the hugging chair is an active compression system. This system allows a much higher level of pressure to be applied and the user can tighten the pressure on the chest or legs as required. An electronic board continuously measures the pressure in the cells to ensure the safety of the user. Since March 2021 this electronic card can be controlled by an application. A tablet allows the caregivers to follow the use of the chair, to regulate the maximum pressures to best adapt to the needs of the users.
