Return
Interactive Corridor
2019-2020
KLM crew members returning from an international flight have to navigate a maze of corridors before collecting their luggage and they are ready to go home. While walking this maze they gradually transition from their KLM duties to becoming a private person returning home.
The interactive experience in the corridor supports this transition and is inspired by the psychological phenomena of mood regulation. Assuming the crew enters with some negative mood and attempting to support a transition to a more positive mood suitable for going home.
The corridor is a remarkable and unique place that crew members immediately recognize and that they are associate with being almost home.
Project Requirement
Research Methods: Site Visit, Interview
A. Walking is a Journey
While crossing the hallway the user influence and experience a slowly emerging story or journey. That way the experience evolves throughout the environment as well.
B. Users transform from professionals to individuals
Coming back to earth means in this case also to come back home. Users are not responsible for representing the company anymore.
C. Users are not home at the Crew Center
The only reason why they go there is to get their luggage as fast as possible to go home. The place itself is not relevant to them at this moment.
D. No obtrusion or intrusive elements in eyesight
As the goal is to leave as fast as possible it is necessary to pass through this hallway and installation quite fast, without the need to wait or interact at all. The crew might also bring luggage with them already which should not affect the experience.
E. Interaction and its effect should be subconsciously
When entering the hallway the users should notice that their presence has an effect on the environment even though it can be a small, barely noticeable effect.
F. Multiple users can interact in different stages
The hallway is long, which means that there is a high chance of new users entering while there are others still experiencing the journey.
The whole corridor will be in white colour. There are panels on the one side of the corridors.
By using the foil for reflective material in the back, we can create some folding patterns. Inspired by the changes of perspectives when a plane landing, the building becomes bigger and bigger, taller, and taller, I designed the templates with different folding width.
Based on the plan, we started building up our corridor.
We used our body to act as the movement of the curtain. We test the directions of rotation, the speed of rotation for each strip. Finally, we found out the best solution that the strips should rotate forward with crew members, and the speed should following the walking speed of the crew members to give a greeting feeling
We tried to experiment with the light position and the movement of the curtain.
We encountered several issues with the Arduino DUEs we were using previously. Making them impossible to use in the final exhibition. So we found a replacement: Arduino Schizzo boards made in the IDE Studio Lab. These had enough grove connections for our installation, so we switched all the DUEs to Schizzos.
We used our body to act as the movement of the curtain. We test the directions of rotation, the speed of rotation for each strip. Finally, we found out the best solution that the strips should rotate forward with crew members, and the speed should following the walking speed of the crew members to give a greeting feeling
Final Work
At Schiphol airport, KLM crews return home from their last flight of the trip. When the last passenger
leaves and their tasks are completed, they start returning homeward.
Being a KLM representative means being responsible for all customer needs. That is why they are wearied and fatigued when finished with their sophisticated and demanding tasks and responsibilities. However, before going home they need to pass through a maze of corridors. A total distance of up to more than three kilometers, to grab their luggage and to enter the "kiss & goodbye area" at the KLM
Crew Center for the final goodbye with the team as they might never work together again. The goodbye moment is an important ritual for the team, thus they would like to do it with a high spirit. The long corridors that they have to walk through offer an excellent opportunity to support them on their journey there, while slowly letting go of responsibilities and transforming from a KLM representative to an individual.
This unique and personal process is supported by our mesmerizing corridor experience for individual crew members passing by or for groups. Their mood changes from a more work orientated to a more amiable personal mood.
The corridor experience supports this transition by distracting crew members. Turning strips that create unique light patterns grab the attention and shift the focus away from the work environment to personal consciousness. This self-reflection starts the journey to return to be an individual.
The prototype of this corridor consists of 12 modules. Built-up from Arduino, sensors, motors and curtains. The visible part is made out of fabric and folded foil, which together creates one wall in a four-meter long hallway.
To match the neutral work environment style most of the visible parts are kept white for the start of the journey. The benefit of this is to reflect the maximum amount of light and enhance the mood effect.
The moving effect of these curtains is additionally supported by light, coming from behind, which creates colorful water-like patterns on the panels and reflections of these and shadow patterns on the floor. So just by passing by it is possible to experience fully – or to just walkthrough. The full exhibit is modular, which makes it possible to add additional strips easily while every panel works autonomously.
A project by Douwe van Alderwerelt, Max Bogert, Maurice le Mahieu, Doreen Mulder, Jan Schneider, Sophia TSE and Amir Zaidi
TSE was in charge of form giving and interaction design