Designers and students tested people's need for rest. HÄLO. 27.09.2016
Our world is bubbling of to-do lists and humans in this fizzy water have forgotten that they do not have a battery than can be recharged from any plug. In order to wake up and live, we need to first a good rest. Where is our on/off button and how do you activate it? We greet Hälo from the depth to research together how to sleep and refresh our run-down minds.
EDL is taking part in a project of European Commission “Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale” with 11 partners. Designers, architects, scientists, sound specialists and a team of students are creating a quiet oasis for stressful city environment called Hälo, where a person needing the peace and quiet could be at least 20 minutes to take time out for yourself and download a new energy.
On 17 September a small structure was erected within the framework of Tallinn Design Festival in front of the Culture Cauldron and with 4 hours the team was testing the opinion and feedback on the effective moments of rest. Part of the test was the vibro-acoustic therapy device HealBed and different sounds. At PechaKucha we could hear more about Hälo concept by Jan Graps and Ken Ruut presentation and Ivar Vinkel took listeners to the mysterious world of sounds.
HumanCities is a concept created in 2006 by the Belgian association Pro Materia and co-funded from 2014-2018 by the Creative Europe Programme of The European Union. It is a platform of interdisciplinary exchanges. This European network is about exploring the way in which the inhabitants reclaim the constantly evolving contemporary city (especially through experiments in the urban space) and ways of (re)inventing city life, as sources of wellbeing and quality of life. These structural changes are impacting both people and places like shops in town and city centres.
Human Cities network highlights 13 strong and shared values:
- Empathy
- Wellbeing
- Sustainability
- Intimacy
- Conviviality
- Mobility
- Accessibility
- Imagination
- Leisure
- Aesthetics
- Sensoriality
- Solidarity
- Respect
Human Cities shared all theses values with strong Partners such as : La Cité du design (FR) – Politecnico di Milano (IT) – Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia (SI) – Clear Village (UK) – Zamek Cieszyn (PL) – Association Design Week Belgrade (RS) – Pro Materia (BE) – Aalto University (FI) – FH Joanneum (AT) – Association of Estonian designers (EST) – Beaz (ES) – Culture Lab (BE).
The Human Cities project is planned according to different programs of which the first is ‘Human Cities State of the Art’ from November 2014 until September 2015. The 6 following programs are ‘Experiment labs’ from April 2015 until April 2017, ‘User experience and analysis of experimentation results’ from March 2016 until June 2017, ‘Productions, dissemination and public outreach’ from January 2015 until September 2018, ‘Meeting the audiences and organizing public events’ from March 2015 until September 2018, ‘Human Cities Masterclasses’ from April 2016 until May 2018 and ‘Management’ & ‘Communication’ from October 2014 until September 2018.
