SOCIAL DESIGN research project tutored by Dots. Sixten Heidmets in co-operation with The Estonian Association of  Hard of Hearing People and The Estonian Chamber of  Disabled People.

 

The general purpose of the project was to map and analyze the problems that emerge in the everyday lives of hard hearing people, to find out how they perceive the environment and study the possibilities to communicate with the society.

 

In the meetings and discussions with the members of The Estonian Association of Hard of Hearing People occurred that one of the problems in the environment is echo. It makes understanding the speech even harder and not only for people with hearing difficulties. In current aspect the problem of the echo was brought out in the auditorium of The Estonian Chamber of  Disabled People where the members held their regular meetings.

 

The main aim of the work was to offer a solution how to improve the acoustics in the auditorium according to the results of the physical parameters of sound frequencies what creates an echo. In that aspect I was tutored by acoustical consultant Linda Madalik.

 

As an outcome I offered the acoustical panel and curtain design solution sketches with the measurements and textile swatches designed considering the historical value of The Estonian Chamber of  Disabled People auditorium. As a result, the collected knowledge was synthesized and the design thinking process was performed to achieve the purpose, keeping in mind the sustainable and environmentally friendly understanding.

 

The textile design pattern is based on the Chladni soundfigure with the frequency of 5875,5 Hz and it is printed as a tactile pattern.