Clinical serenity

Warm colours, soft shapes and an organic flow the room that reduce the feeling of vulnerability. Through her project Meno Clinic, Mathilda Karlsson aims to make visits to the gynaecologist more pleasant.

Warm colours, soft shapes and an organic flow through the room that reduce the feeling of vulnerability. Through her project ”Meno Clinic”, Mathilda Karlsson aims to make visits to the gynaecologist more pleasant. As the winner of the award Ung Svensk Form 2021, her entry is currently on tour through Sweden, while she herself is studying for her master's degree in advanced product design in Umeå, where she has also taken part in the incubation programme Expression.

– A gynaecological exam can make a woman feel so vulnerable, both physically and mentally. Many women skip important procedures like smears because they find it too daunting or they have low self-esteem. Design can do so much to make the experience feel safer, says Mathilda Karlsson.

They associated today's exam rooms with cold metallic materials, municipal colours and faux leather on the examination chair. Instead they preferred warmer colours and softer, though still hygienic, materials, says Mathilda Karlsson.

Designing a safe space

For ”Meno Clinic”, which was her bachelor thesis project at the Umeå Institute of Design, she interviewed doctors, healthcare staff and visitors at women's and youth clinics around the city. While the latter tended to be more pleasantly decorated, patients often perceived the examination rooms in a hospital environment as big and cold.

– The focus of my project is the actual feel and flow in the room, how the doctor sits, where the patient gets undressed and where she walks, says Mathilda Karlsson.

In the process, she brought in female design students to help. Through role-play, they discussed and visualised their spatial experience of women's clinics and how they would like to see them.

They associated today's exam rooms with cold metallic materials, municipal colours and faux leather on the examination chair. Instead they preferred warmer colours and softer, though still hygienic, materials, says Mathilda Karlsson.

She came up with three concepts with features of home or spa environments, and showed them to healthcare workers and patients before designing her proposal, in which the room is divided into different functions. An organically shaped seating area makes the conversation with the doctor more relaxed, while a semi-transparent screen around the exam area provides a more enclosed and protective sphere. The patient can undress and get into the chair without having to walk naked across the room in front of the doctor.

– I've had very positive response and I was invited to the University Hospital of Umeå, says Mathilda Karlsson, adding that one of their clinics got inspired and will now redesign as a result of her project.

What the future holds

In the future, she wants to use design to make people's daily lives better, especially with regards to healthcare and hospital environments, as well as women's issues. Before finishing her master's degree, she plans on spending a year interning in various forms of design jobs. She has already had a taste of what it is like to freelance.

– In the summer of 2019, I was accepted to the incubation programme SummerExpression here in Umeå. We were ten design and architecture students who got the chance to develop an idea into a finished product in collaboration with local producers, says Mathilda Karlsson.

A business incubator for creatives

The business incubator Expression was launched in the mid-2010s by the University of Umeå and the City of Umeå to promote innovation, development and entrepreneurship in the cultural and creative sectors. It offers support for the start-up and running of business, and is adapted to the needs of sole proprietors. They look particularly for a person's own creative drive and their potential to grow horizontally through networks and clusters.

– For me, it laid a foundation and gave me experience in entrepreneurship that school doesn't teach. I gained an understanding of the value of supporting and collaborating with local manufacturers. As well as why no expenses should be spared in design, and all the steps required for me as a designer to charge for my work. Those are good skills to have in the future, says Mathilda Karlsson.

Text by: Carolina Söderholm

The article was originally published in Form Magazine, 3, 2021.