Beatnik - The Sound Station Chair

Designing tranquillity for busy open spaces

Client

Donar

Year(s)

2016

A visual and sound isolating room within a room, providing comfort, relaxation, privacy, and digital connectivity in busy open-plan spaces.

Others about us:

  • Over the duration of the project, our company has grown from 4 to 14 employees and has entered the US and Australian markets. Thanks to KCDM, we started using service design and began systematically managing our design processes.

    Andraž Mihelin

    CEO

    ,

    Seascape

  • Excellent collaboration that provided employees with the opportunity to express their needs and expectations for the new space and professionally guided the process through which we aligned priorities.

    Martina Knavs

    Strategic Projects

    ,

    Jožef Štefan Insitute

  • Design research process proved essential in defining innovation opportunities when developing our sailing boats. It is exciting to hear that this process is now available in digital form.

    Andraž Mihelin

    CEO

    ,

    Seascape

  • AMZS has a rich tradition yet faces mobility challenges. Flexibility, agility, and innovation drive our mission. We grow as individuals and teams. To communicate our mission, we partnered with Sito, enabling us to overcome challenges and co-create efficient paths for new offers and upgrades.

    Lucija Sajevec

    CEO

    ,

    AMZS

  • Using Intuido, we were able to collect more than 300 insights in just 2 weeks, providing us with a better understanding of our users, their experiences and needs. The tool also enabled us to create organised and well-structured innovation guidelines that will help shape the development of our products and services in the future.

    Matija Torlak

    Product Director

    ,

    Plastika Skaza

  • Sustainability is a core value at Intra Lighting, but often takes a back seat to quality, modularity, and culture, relying on individual employees. Efforts lacked consistent management and communication. Our collaboration sought to create a comprehensive sustainability strategy, with workshops producing valuable content for future solutions.

    Nika Furlan

    Head of Marketing

    ,

    Intra Lighting

  • Throughout the entire process, we have learned from Sito that we cannot address and resolve different needs and requirements using the methods we have known and been accustomed to until now. This is a significant gain that will help us in the development of our entire business, not just in space planning.

    Marin Medak

    Founder

    ,

    Della Spina

The Challenge

Slovenian chair manufacturer Donar approached us in 2016 with an exciting vision for an acoustic chair. However, their initial prototypes quickly proved to be less than what they aspired for. We decided to take a few steps back and set a clear brief to start the design process from scratch. Our main goal was to develop a comfortable room-in-room space that provides a sensory getaway from crowded or noisy open spaces such as lobbies, offices and exhibition venues.

Our Approach

We paid very close attention to the micro-environment inside the chair. Our creative process was guided by a set of feelings we aimed to provide for the user - a space to feel safe, relaxed, and isolated from busy surroundings. We wanted the outer silhouette to communicate this as well, bringing a very distinctive visual cue to the interior and standing out almost as a centrepiece.

By exploring various add-ons, we wanted to extend the experience from mere sitting to enjoying the music, video conferencing, checking e-mails, and more. In collaboration with a sound engeneer Aleš Dravinec, we strategically placed a set of speakers to create a spatial sound effect within a chair and implemented wireless technology for instant connectivity.

Prioritizing comfort, we designed a wider sitting area, with enough space to climb in with both feet and thus giving an option for a variety of sitting positions.

With a chair this big, it seemed like an obvious choice to construct it from panels, ensuring it could be carried through narrow corridors and doors while streamlining production with a single mold.‍

The Outcomes


Beatnik found its place in various semi-private and public settings, giving overwhelmed visitors a chance to unplug and relax or do some quick work away from distractions.

Product phototography by Nejc Lasič.

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