In times of turbulence and uncertainty, it is not a great surprise to find designers looking to enhance our daily lives.
In truth, the desire to focus on the improvement of wellbeing has seen a sharp rise over the past few years with a number of designers seeking to create interactive products and surfaces that produce therapeutic moments of transcendence.
Dutch designer Tess Cleven offers a prime example of this modern trend. Her Living Stone collection takes natural materials and turns them into wellness products. Gathering Marl, a stone that is usually used to create sculpture, from the famous Limburg pits and caves, Cleven found that the chalky mineral is easy to form and grind as well as being a great absorber.
These properties have been harnessed to create three distinct products. The ground Marl offers an all-natural scrub that exfoliates and boosts the skins surface. The Scent Stone absorbs fragrance and omits the scent for weeks to come. Whilst the De/Humidifier uses the absorbing properties of Marl to draw excess moisture from the air.
