Lotte – Aiding Independence in Old Age
Mainly due to worn out, painful joints and the degradation of the musculature, many elderly people have great problems sitting down and standing up - especially when the seat is low and there are no backrests. The seating furniture used in care facilities responds to this with raised seating surfaces and massive armrests. Many of these “furniture for the elderly” admittedly appear so clunky and inelegant in formal terms that they have an involuntary stigmatizing effect and are deliberately avoided by some people. This is where Sarah Hossli’s Lotte project comes in. She set out to design an armchair that would meet the functional, ergonomic, and aesthetic needs of older people, while at the same time captivating them with a pleasant external appearance such that it would also be used outside of care facilities. To develop the chair, Hossli worked closely with relevant experts and the residents of the Neubad multigenerational house in Basel. Lotte is an armchair with a wooden base and textile-covered seat and back cushions, which are easy to dismantle in the need for refurbishment. Its most striking feature is the armrests, which rise slightly towards the front and are somewhat elongated to make it easier to stand up and sit down. The backrests are shaped so that they can be grasped securely and serve as a comfortable armrest. The armrest, which wraps around the body of the chair like a railing, lends itself to support and makes it easier for cleaners and caregivers, for example, to handle the chair.
Comments of the nominators
A superbly designed armchair created on the basis of careful analysis. On the one hand, Lotte responds perfectly to the functional needs of frail and debilitated people, and on the other, thanks to an elegant, emphatically homely appearance, avoids any stigmatizing association.
Comments of the jury
Seating furniture designed to meet the special needs of the elderly and people with disabilities is usually most conspicuous for its coarse design – just as if, at a late stage of life, aesthetic quality no longer played a role. This need not be so, thought a student at ECAL. As part of her master’s project, she therefore created the Lotte armchair, which on the one hand fulfills functional and ergonomic requirements, but on the other hand captivates with its aesthetic appearance. It impressively avoids any stigmatizing associations that otherwise seem to cling to furniture for senior citizens. Practical and elegant at the same time, the chair therefore cuts a fine figure even outside of care facilities. The project, which was based on a very careful and comprehensive problem analysis, is convincing all along the line and on all levels. Addendum: The Lotte armchair was originally submitted in the “Ageing Society” category. However, in order to emphasize the integrative character of the design, the jury decided to award it in the “Furniture” category.
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