DESIGNING WITH THE BODY by Kristina Höök

How do you usually start a design project? What is soma design and what impact does it have on design? How is the design process of soma design different from the one we know? How can soma design help designers and users?

Into the body

How can we use our body for designing? How can improve and experiment with our perception?

To help my fellow design students to increase their bodily awareness I prepared a guided meditation. Instead of thinking with our brain how the chair they sit on can be improved I was asking them to close their eyes, dive into their body and perceive how they feel. How does gravity pull them towards the sitting surface. Do they feel that the shape or material supports them? How can it feel different to suit better the purpose of the chair?

How does this approach influence us designers in our work?

Designing with the body

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Take away

To me, soma design is a counter proposal to a hustle we are otherwise used to in design culture. Why not starting in design education to incorporate the principles and exercises from soma design like slow storming, Feldenkreis methods and so on? In my opinion it makes totally sense to include all our body – not only the reasonable part – to create a holistic experience. I'm sure this will help to add more quality to the services and products we make as designers and so to the world we live in.