Filip Czapla
Product designer, lead technology
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Modular sensory system · Kraków, Poland
CalmReef
by NIOH NIOH
Tune out the noise, tune into yourself: CalmReef combines acoustic performance with multisensory interaction for personalised moments of rest.
CalmReef is a modular sensory system for homes, workplaces and healthcare. Its acoustic panels can be combined in flexible configurations integrating light, sound, scent and touch, to create personalised spaces that support rest and emotional balance.
Based on the geometry of the icosahedron, the panels connect into diverse structures – a sensory wall in an open-plan office, a suspended dome above an armchair, acoustic lighting in a meeting room or a desk divider: a personal “coral reef” shaped around individual sensory needs, which can be rearranged, moved and reused. It carries the values of the studio’s earlier CalmCave, interactive furniture for emotional restoration, into a more modular approach.
Each acoustic panel uses a sustainable material with high acoustic performance, reducing surrounding sound to create a sense of calm and separation. Once the room is quieter, gentle stimulation helps users ground themselves: acoustic, light and sensory panels offer natural sounds, ambient light patterns, herbal scents, tactile cushions with varied textures and subtle airflow.
The system follows a slow-tech approach. Instead of screens and complex interfaces that add to cognitive load, it uses intuitive, haptic interactions embedded in the environment, so users remain in control of which senses they engage, and how much stimulation feels right.
CalmReef was developed with neurodivergent adolescent patients from the Psychiatric Unit of the University Hospital in Kraków, who shaped its first concepts through research and workshops. It responds to the needs of highly sensitive people – yet in a loud, fast and overstimulating world, everyone sometimes needs a moment to pause.
Specifications
- Modules
- Acoustic, light and sensory panels
- Geometry
- Icosahedral, for walls, domes, lighting and dividers
- Senses
- Natural sounds, ambient light, herbal scents, tactile cushions, subtle airflow
- Interaction
- Slow tech: haptic, without screens
- For
- Homes, workplaces, schools, hospitals and airports
- Developed with
- Neurodivergent adolescent patients, University Hospital Kraków
About NIOH NIOH
NIOH NIOH is a young design and prototyping studio from Kraków, Poland, exploring slow tech through interactive objects that support wellbeing. It combines product design, technology and user-centred research to create playful, meaningful solutions for vitality, mental health and everyday comfort. As residents of Apteka Designu, the team also helps shape Wesoła, a creative district emerging from Kraków’s former hospital quarter.
The people behind it
Joanna Rudzińska
Product designer, lead user research
- Krzysztof Nowak
- Industrial designer
- Marek Buczkowski
- Embedded software developer
- Michał Szostek
- PCB designer
Visit
Ten days, two addresses. The exhibition at the Festivalzentrale by day, the MANIFESTO Bar at SEVEN by night.
- Day venue · 1130 Wien
- Festivalzentrale
- Hietzinger Kai 101, 1130 Wien
- 25 Sept – 4 Oct, daily 11:00–19:00
- Open in Google Maps
- Night venue · 1070 Wien
- SEVEN Concept Space
- Kirchengasse 26, 1070 Wien
- 30 Sept – 3 Oct, 19:00–22:30 · Sat until 24:00
- Open in Google Maps