2022 Winners > Winners of Philippines

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Name: Nicole Angela Tenoso

School: University of Santo Tomas

HYGGE Quality Living in Simplicity

What is the inspiration for your design?
As urbanization progresses, the pace of life increases as well. With the idea of gaining back the sense of ease despite being surrounded by a fast pace world, the bathroom design was anchored on creating an environment that brings out Hygge, a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment and well-being. Hygge is not something that is forced. Instead, it is more of a natural feeling achieved when everything falls into its proper place. And so, the bathroom design revolves around giving the users a better quality of life through simple living. The bathroom was designed to eliminate the complexity of day-to-day living by designating spaces for the essential things, thus removing the eye-clutter and keeping the bathroom always clear and clean. The design makes use of natural material palette to establish a space that gives off comfort, warmth, and belongingness.

Who is the target user and how does the design fulfill the need of the target user?
The bathroom was designed to accommodate young families with kids between ages of 4 to 8. With that, the design ideas were tailored to fit the needs of the adults and the children, as well as the overall growth of the family as years pass by. Since the kids will eventually grow into young adults, the bathroom makes use of a simple and movable item such as a stool to function as a seat, step, and as a platform to maximize its purpose in the bathroom. The intentional design and placement of every space and item allowed the bathroom to be easily maintained, which is essential in making a tiny space in a condominium unit to be clean and cozy. Aside from that, creating a simple space that serves its day-to-day function helps the members of the family to enjoy the space more because of how friendly it is to everyone.

How does the design fulfill the theme for the chosen category?
A family can still attain Hygge despite the limited living space. The design prioritizes only the essential items for the bathroom to ensure that it serves its day-to-day purpose for the family. By eliminating unnecessary items and alloting smart storage, the bathroom became more breathable and neat. The design was able to achieve a space that feels cozy and comfortable within a limited square area because the purpose of each item was considered through every step of the design process. The space saved from deliberate design decisions also allowed the addition of a self-sustaining micro garden which created a more serene and close-to-nature ambiance while also helping to lessen the humidity in the small space of the bathroom. The simple and intentional approach of the bathroom design allowed the space to attain comfort without the need to sacrifice its purpose and efficiency for the users’ daily needs.

How does the choice of products contribute to the purpose of the design?
The wide collection of American Standard products allowed the design decisions to be quicker and easier. The design of the products could easily adapt to the numerous decisions made during the design process, hence making the exploration of various layouts and themes simple and enjoyable. Choosing the products is critical in creating the bathroom design that could be quickly and easily maintained in order to lessen the stress of maintenance to the users. However, because of the adaptability of the product designs, the decisions were easily made. The chosen products exude elegance and beauty through simplicity which is important in tying the overall design of the bathroom together. The simple and direct mechanism of every product coheres to the intention of the bathroom design which is to give the users better quality living through simplicity.