Who doesn’t need a hug? This exhibition will lift your mood
If you visit the installation Deep Calm at Curtin House later this year, prepare to be enveloped in a warm, welcoming hug.
The work is the brainchild of Sibling Architecture co-directors Amelia Borg and Nicholas Braun and their colleagues, and informed by principles of sensory design, which creates spaces that are easy to navigate for neurodiverse people.
Sibling Architecture’s Nicholas Braun and Amelia Borg.Credit: Joe Armao
Deep Calm is a series of organic-looking, weighted, soft sculptures created to help patrons relax and feel good. “Visitors will be guided in and tucked into these sculptures, [which have] been designed with certain weights. These soft sculptures will be hugging you,” Borg says.
Created for Melbourne Design Week in May, the installation accommodates different group sizes: one is designed for visitors wanting to try it solo, the others allow two or three people to do it together.
Custom rugs of different pile heights are also part of the piece, which essentially mimic different tactile therapies, says Borg. A sound and light piece is also being developed to help users “deregulate” and manage their emotions.
People who are neurodivergent have a wide range of requirements – there is no one catchall, Borg says. One in eight Australians are neurodiverse, according to Monash Health, an umbrella term encompassing autism, ADHD, dyslexia, Tourette’s syndrome and more.
Part of the Wangaratta District Specialist School, designed by Sibling Architecture. The project was 2024 winner of the AA Social Impact Award.Credit: Derek Salwell
The idea for the project, which Sibling spent 12 months researching and is funded by a grant from Creative Victoria, came from the organisation’s work on the new Wangaratta District Specialist School. Catering for students living with quite severe physical and intellectual disabilities, the school features several innovative design elements, including a space that inspired Deep Calm. “Students liked squeezing their bodies through tight alcoves and elements,” Borg says.
The deep pressure or “squeezing” phenomenon is a practice that’s been around for a long time, she says, a therapy used by occupational therapists working with neurodivergent children since the 1960s.
