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Solace

A man with a beard, looking exhausted, is sitting in a brightly lit kitchen, staring blankly ahead. An imagined scene hovers above his head: he is sitting in his office in front of a laptop, wearing a headset, whilst a woman is speaking beside him. The image resembles a clay or stop-motion figure and symbolises that his thoughts are still on work, even though he is at home. A turquoise wordmark reading ‘solace’ in lower-case letters, with a symbol to its right consisting of two slightly overlapping, vertically arranged circles, also in turquoise, on a white background. A rear view of a person sitting alone on a light-coloured sofa in a living room, looking at a large, bright orange area featuring abstract black shapes on the wall in front of them. Hand-drawn product illustrations of the Solace-Stage, the Solace-Dock and the Solace-Scentplug: top left and centre, two perspective drawings of a flat, rounded device base (Stage) with a recess for the depth sensor, an inclined projection surface and ports; bottom left: a flat charging station (Dock); on the right, two front views of a small, rounded plug-in device (Scentplug) featuring the Solace logo and a contrasting lower section. A close-up of a model hand placing a black smartphone into the Solace dock; in the background, a brightly lit kitchen-living room scene is visible out of focus. A two-part photograph of a prototype Solace dock: on the left, the closed, beige 3D-printed casing with a small button, LED and recessed logo on the top; on the right, the open underside with a transparent cover, revealing a built-in ESP32 microcontroller and the internal wiring to the button and LED. Photograph of a 3D-printed model of the Solace Stage: a beige, oval base with an extended, elongated section incorporating a black Kinect V2 sensor unit, a turquoise underside and a power cable; placed on a white table in front of a light-coloured wall.
User Experience Design 7th semester

A ritual of unavailability that is integrated into the home, physical and sensory in nature, and clearly defined.

A Bachelor’s project by: Amy Sutcliffe
7th semester, 2025/2026
Supervisors: Prof. Tsunemitsu Tanaka, Prof. Andrea Krajewski

No room for a transition

Many working people are familiar with the feeling of having arrived home physically, yet still being mentally stuck in their daily work routine. A stressful, communication-heavy daily routine, combined with constant digital availability, leaves little room for genuine rest, even though this is essential for counteracting irritability, social withdrawal and a lack of energy.



Solitude – the state of voluntary, undisturbed aloneness – offers a key prerequisite for this. It frees us from external expectations, creates space for our own needs and enables clear, self-determined thinking. Crucial to this is the absence of both physical and virtual connections.
 Nevertheless, everyday life lacks approaches that legitimise conscious solitude and regeneration as a necessary foundation for meaningful interaction. There is also a lack of a clearly defined transitional space in which one is temporarily unreachable, both physically and digitally, so as to be all the more present afterwards: for one’s partner, family, friends and oneself.

This is where the project comes in: Solace is conceived as a ritualistic, spatially embedded system that safeguards solitude, reduces distractions and consciously frames this transition. This retreat is not understood as isolation, but as a prerequisite for conscious, high-quality encounters.

A man with a beard, looking exhausted, is sitting in a brightly lit kitchen, staring blankly ahead. An imagined scene hovers above his head: he is sitting in his office in front of a laptop, wearing a headset, whilst a woman is speaking beside him. The image resembles a clay or stop-motion figure and symbolises that his thoughts are still on work, even though he is at home.

Solace: The Interstice

The human need for self-chosen solitude must not lose its legitimacy in everyday life.

Solace is an atmospheric system for the home that transforms the transition from work to leisure mode within one’s own four walls into a clearly defined, protected in-between space, where stress is relieved, mental relaxation is promoted and thoughts can flow more freely.

In doing so, it legitimises a temporary phase of ‘unavailability’ as an essential act of self-care and establishes this transition as a recurring, ritualised element of the daily return home, enabling one to approach subsequent duties and interactions with greater quality.

This takes place consciously, without coercion, judgement or effort, and in an atmospheric, sensorially experiential way, so that ‘winding down’ becomes something one not only understands but actually feels.

A turquoise wordmark reading ‘solace’ in lower-case letters, with a symbol to its right consisting of two slightly overlapping, vertically arranged circles, also in turquoise, on a white background.
A rear view of a person sitting alone on a light-coloured sofa in a living room, looking at a large, bright orange area featuring abstract black shapes on the wall in front of them.

A moment just for you

The experience begins with a simple gesture: placing your smartphone in a dedicated dock, creating an atmospheric space of its own. A minimalist setting comprising dimmed lighting, a subtle fragrance, a restrained soundscape of white noise and an abstract projection gently and effortlessly envelops the user.



The user’s influence on the system is optional and designed to be low-threshold, thus remaining open to varying degrees of activity: from passive perception to conscious intervention. Through slow arm movements, the people can subtly modulate the atmosphere – for example, its direction and structure – thereby creating a calming and relieving interaction with the surroundings.

 This is not about isolation, but rather a conscious form of being alone. This phase of solitude strengthens the ability to be present with oneself, to let thoughts linger and to release emotional tension.



After the session, the people re-engage with friends, partners or family in a more balanced, open state. The aim of the ritual is to clear the mind after work, so that subsequent encounters can be experienced with greater awareness, patience and presence.

An overview of the Solace system

The system consists of the Solace Dock, the Solace Scentplug and the Solace Stage, which together create an atmospheric transitional space within the living room. All components communicate wirelessly with one another.

The Solace Stage forms the heart of the system. It combines a projector, motion and depth sensors, and a speaker system into a single unit designed for the living room. The Stage is placed on a sideboard or cabinet, approximately 50–80 cm from the wall, and does not require ceiling mounting.

The projected visual scene consists of clearly legible, organic patterns that feel familiar without becoming narrative. The lava lamp-like aesthetic allows the scene to ‘flow’, ‘glow’ and ‘breathe’, whilst retaining its physical and atmospheric appeal. The experience is complemented by brown noise, which, as an unobtrusive, continuous sound element, contributes significantly to the overall multi-sensory atmosphere.

Hand-drawn product illustrations of the Solace-Stage, the Solace-Dock and the Solace-Scentplug: top left and centre, two perspective drawings of a flat, rounded device base (Stage) with a recess for the depth sensor, an inclined projection surface and ports; bottom left: a flat charging station (Dock); on the right, two front views of a small, rounded plug-in device (Scentplug) featuring the Solace logo and a contrasting lower section.

The Solace Dock acts as a deliberate physical trigger for the system. It detects when the smartphone is placed on or removed from the dock via a microswitch and transmits this status wirelessly to the Solace Stage. By deliberately placing the smartphone in the dock, digital connectivity is suspended for a limited time: work notifications, chats and doomscrolling are kept at bay, creating a self-determined, brief period of solitude free from social expectations or digital distractions.

The Solace-Scentplug adds an olfactory dimension to the system. As a standalone fragrance diffuser, it is controlled wirelessly by the Solace-Stage. Natural, subtle scents such as lavender, sandalwood, jasmine or chamomile aid relaxation during the session and promote a sense of inner presence.

In addition, a light module is included, which effectively complements the system and enhances the room’s atmosphere.

Together, the Dock, Scentplug, Stage and optional light form a coherent, tranquil system that blends seamlessly into users’ everyday lives and living spaces.

A close-up of a model hand placing a black smartphone into the Solace dock; in the background, a brightly lit kitchen-living room scene is visible out of focus.
Visualisation created with the help of Google Gemini (AI-generated)
A two-part photograph of a prototype Solace dock: on the left, the closed, beige 3D-printed casing with a small button, LED and recessed logo on the top; on the right, the open underside with a transparent cover, revealing a built-in ESP32 microcontroller and the internal wiring to the button and LED.

From Concept to Experience

The system’s core processes were prototyped in order to validate both the system logic and the specific user workflow in terms of their technical and experiential feasibility. This includes the gesture used to activate the system – placing the smartphone in the Solace dock – as well as the scene that is initiated by this gesture, projected onto the screen and which can be physically influenced.

For the Solace dock’s activation logic, an ESP32 microcontroller was wired to an LED and a micro-switch and housed in a 3D-printed casing featuring custom-made slots for the button and the LED display. Placing the smartphone on the dock transmits a START/STOP signal to the computer to trigger the session or, when the smartphone is removed, to end it.

The technical implementation of the visual and auditory atmosphere was carried out as part of the Bachelor’s project using the Arduino IDE and TouchDesigner. A lava-lamp-like, abstract scene accompanied by white noise forms the visual and auditory core of the experience. Users’ movements are captured via a Kinect V2 and gently translated within TouchDesigner into various parameters of the scene, such as direction of movement, structural changes and sound filtering. The signal generated by the Arduino serves as a trigger for the start and end of the scene within TouchDesigner.

In this way, the physical act of putting something down is immediately translated into an atmospheric change in the room, making the transition from work to leisure comprehensible both technically and emotionally. To ensure a complete and visually compelling presentation of the system, the Solace-Stage and the Solace-Scentplug were also created as 3D models and produced using a 3D printer.

Photograph of a 3D-printed model of the Solace Stage: a beige, oval base with an extended, elongated section incorporating a black Kinect V2 sensor unit, a turquoise underside and a power cable; placed on a white table in front of a light-coloured wall.

Downloads

Research documentation
Project documentation

Note: Some of the visualisations in this article were created using the AI tool Google Gemini.

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