Developing a resting area that optimizes comfort and natural experience during recreational cycling

Developing a resting area that optimizes comfort and natural experience during recreational cycling

Izeboud, A.M.A.

Schifferstein, H.N.J. (mentor)
Mul, E.J. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Design Engineering

2015-03-31

This report describes the process of my graduation project which is commissioned by the Civil Engineering consultancy agency Tauw (Technisch Adviesbureau van de Unie van Waterschappen). This graduation project was arranged by a research team at the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, which work on the Nature Inspired Design methodology.This team has set- up a series of graduation projects to put the methodology into practise. Hereby the research team aquires deeper knowledge in the effectiveness of the methodology and the experiences of a designer working with the methodology. The goal of the project was to use the NID methodology in order to design a NID cycling path.This was a very broad starting point of the project, which means I had a lot of freadom to find an interesting design direction.To specify the project more, the Viruly cycling path, a recreational cycling path just outside of the city of Delft, was chosen as a case study. Since Tauw is a Civil Engineering consultancy agency, I didn’t have a lot of knowledge about their business. Therefore first a thorough internal and external research were conducted. Five interviews with employees with different specializations were held to learn more about cycling path design, but also the company’s goals and the strengths and weaknesses. I found their most valueble strengths to be their knowledge of soil and ecology, but also their striving for sustainability and an attractive living environment. Chapter 2 describes the context analysis at the Viruly cycling path, which plays a key role in the project.To design a succesfull NID product, which exists in harmony with its environment it is impor tant to find out what proper ties the environment has. What are the qualities of the environment and what aspects of the environment are vulnerable to change. The environment of the Viruly cycling path is natural and therefore very complex as it changes constantly. By analyzing (literature research, multiple observations, interviews) the Viruly cycling path and using the Life’s Principles of the NID methodology to test the quality of the facilities it was concluded that the resting facilities next to the recreational cycling path are of very bad quality and show a lot of room for improvement. Resting facilities should be more comfortable,but also enhance the natural experience during resting. A well designed resting area in nature helps people destress, gain renewed energy and thereby function better in the busy daily lifestyle, where mostly computer screen run people’s lives. . Chapter 3 describes the effect of nature on the physical and mental wellbeing and how nature’s properties can be used as inspiration and embodiment of products to enhance their natural feel. Also, research is done to find out the optimal ergonomical body postures for resting. Lying down is most effective as it releases most stress from the body. This led to the final design, a resting area positioned around a tree, inspired by a bird’s nest. The unique visual experience offers the user a view into the crown of the tree. This offers the user a new and interesting perspective on nature, something they would normally not come up with. Positioning the resting area around the tree and using it as the view itself, instead of removing the trees, to create an open view, also shows Tauw how to use nature’s qualities to increase the Experience value of the environment. The resting area is designed to offer users with different body lengths 5 different body postures to rest in. The goal of the resting area is to enhance the natural feel and qualities of the environment as much as possible.Therefore also natural materials (wood, soil & grass) are chosen as surface material.This way the resting area integrates with the environment and lets the user touch the environment and “become one with nature”. In the last phase, one of the ergonomical lying positions has been tested by the means of a 1:1 physical model.The test results have been translated into a final redesign, which I can recommend to be built on a 1:1 scale and let users optimally experience physical and mental rest, while enjoying the qualities

nature
inspired
design
resting
area
physical rest
mental rest
nature experience

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:124939de-37e0-4432-89a0-769bd2d7834d

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2015 Izeboud, A.M.A.