Today’s society tends to value productivity and long working hours, where taking breaks and needing rest when at work can be perceived as signs of weakness or sickness rather than a necessity for wellbeing. According to The Swedish Work Environment Authority you must provide a resting room in workplaces with more than 50 employees. Job-related stress and burnout are growing problems, so I see the resting room as an important space with great potential to work preventively with this problem. Sensory Space focuses on resting rooms and explores ways to deal with stress and exhaustion through interior architecture and design and how it can promote rest and recovery. The aim is to integrate rest as a more natural part of the workplace by making resting rooms more attractive, inviting and restorative.

I have been visiting and analyzing existing resting rooms, making field studies to other spaces for rest and contemplation, reading studies and research on the subject of restorative environments and interviewing a designer who works with creating health promoting environments based on neuro science. The project explores how atmosphere, material associations and a variety of sensory impressions can create a feeling of connection to nature.

The result is an inviting resting room with objects that can be placed freely throughout the room for you to interact with materials which can enhance the experience of resting and make it more pleasant.