Michael Tiritilli

ATEN:​​A Private Place That Facilitates Focus And Productivity

Aten Egyptian god of the Sun allows people on the planet earth to see the light and help lift their spirit and their mind. I named my project after the Egyptian god, because I wanted my chair also to help boost the soul and the mind through focus, specifically in public spaces.

People who use institutional furniture are looked at as learning machines/workers and not humans. This makes it hard for people to be comfortable in institutional furniture. This discomfort can make students and workers more distracted and less productive.

My how might is how might we create a chair that allows the user to have two modes of comfort while working one for focus and the other for relaxation? Through this process, I did testing and research of posture, color, and form to make a chair that would effectively help students and workers focus.

After my research, I started building ideas and prototyping. Through this process, I learned a lot about proportions, positions of sitting, and the attention needed to work effectively. After building my first model, I knew that there was a strong idea inside of this project as I pushed forward to make it as refined as possible. As I built the actual chair during this time of uncertainty in the world, I realize that this chair can do more than help people focus, but it could help bring people together while being apart.

What I want my chair to do is help people focus, relax, and be as productive as possible in a public space. My chair allows for all these things while also accommodating the user's items and their own personal work station. From this chair, people will be able to work and lift their minds to a new level of focus and concentration.