tóci: the hugging chair

TOCI is a concept designed for the Trentino Autism Foundation. This group project unfolded over a period of six months, and resulted in a therapeutic furniture piece tailored for people with autism that we called a "hugging chair."

​

Developing the design for TOCI was an intricate and enlightening process. Through extensive research and numerous interviews, we identified  deep pressure therapy as a promising approach to alleviate stress and anxiety commonly experienced by individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Our primary objective was to foster a sense of complete comfort and facilitate social integration for individuals with ASD in public spaces. To achieve this, we designed a felt backrest that envelops the body, applying gentle compression as the user leans into it—thus creating what we refer to as the "hug effect."

Additionally, we integrated a feature allowing the entire backrest to slide up and down, providing flexibility and accommodating various usage modalities according to the user's needs and emotional state.