Chair designed by Czech architect offers parents of premature children greater in-hospital privacy

Photo: archive of Black Back studio
  • Chair designed by Czech architect offers parents of premature children greater in-hospital privacy
0:00
/
6:59

In this week’s Arts, meet the Prague-based architect and designer Petr Schwarzbeck. He made headlines recently for the design of a special egg-shaped chair which in the future could allow parents of premature babies a better opportunity to bond with their newborn while still in the hospital.

Photo: archive of Black Back studio
Inspiration for the design came from the birth of architect Petr Schwarzbeck’s daughter eight years ago. Born two months early, Apolena spent the first 65 days of her life in an incubator. Schwarzbeck and his wife turned to what is known as kangaroo care: daily skin-on-skin contact to reinforce parent-child bond. One or more sessions a day provide reassurance and personal warmth missing inside the incubator.

When I spoke to Petr Schwarzbeck this week he told me about his and his wife’s experience eight years ago.

“My wife had a high-risk pregnancy and she spent two months in hospital in Prague when she was mid-term. At the time, I was working in Leeds in the UK, earning money to save for our family. But about three weeks before our little girl was born my wife called me and told me things were serious and that it was time to come back.

“Our baby was born at seven months and it was a week before we were able to see her outside of the incubator. Until then, we could only watch her from outside.”

Once the week had passed the father and mother were able to spend time with their baby. But the chairs in the hospital provided little intimacy and not much comfort. The idea to come up with an improvement was inspired by those moments and later, after founding his own architectural studio, Petr Schwarzbeck and colleagues Lukáš Kasper and Jana Hučíková designed a solution: an egg-shaped or womb-like chair with a pull down top capable of allowing greater privacy in hospital surroundings. Petr Schwarzbeck explains:

Photo: Lucie Zemanová
“Many designers have produced egg-shaped chairs – that is certainly nothing new. I can think of at least 12 variations offhand… and we still see new variants and the evolution of earlier designs. But no one, as far as I know, had ever re-designed the egg-shaped chair for the purpose of kangaroo care.”

Until now. Petr Schwarzbeck told me more about the different needs the chair had to serve and he also talked about the material which would be used

“The first requirement is for the chair must be easy to use in the hospital environment: simple to move (which is why it is on wheels), easy to clean, and accessible. The egg-like shell could be produced from either corian or from a laminate or eco-laminate. The interior upholstery of the chair would be from textile leather which is easy to wipe down. The top of the egg, which is a pull-down shade, is textile stretched on an aluminum frame, allowing muted light through.”

Design-wise says Petr Schwarzbeck, he opted for the egg-shape with modifications, to make it easy for parents to get in and out of the chair, especially mums recovering from caesarians, easy to cradle the baby or breastfeed, and for it to be comfortable and private for those inside. He says that when he cradled his own daughter years ago, he couldn’t escape the regular goings-on in the hospital environment, and felt like he was in the way of staff, and couldn’t relax with his baby. Health professionals, for those reasons and others greeted the chair design enthusiastically, inspiring the architect to take it into the prototype stage.

Photo: archive of Black Back studio
“I contacted Lucie Žáčková from the NGO Nedoklubko who put us in touch with the neonatal commission where the egg was presented and welcomed. Plans for the chair were been presented to health care professionals and even at the Letní letná theatre festival, and the reaction was very positive. But everyone always asked when they could see a prototype.”

For that reason, the architect and designer launched a crowdfunding project for the development of two prototypes to take the chair beyond the drawing board. The project has done well so far, raising 70,000 crowns or so of a 120,000 crown goal; now, there is less than a fortnight to go. Often in crowdfunding, backers are offered numerous incentives and stretch goals. In in this case, there wasn’t much room to manoeuvre, as the architect couldn’t offer anyone parts of the prototype. However, backers do receive special mentions and gain the satisfaction of backing a good idea and quality item which could improve conditions for newborns and their families in the future. Pledges range from modest to generous.

“That’s a bit of a problem: I can’t give away parts of the chair. So depending on how much you pledge you get a thank you or special mention online. For larger pledges, you get a photograph of you in the chair, while five thousand crowns gets you a special dinner with us, the designers. A super pledge of 30,000 gets your name on the prototype itself.”

The potential for egg-shaped success, the designer says, also goes beyond the maternity ward. It is too soon to talk about broader production, but there is no reason the chair could not be sold and used in-home, offering parents a quiet corner in their apartment or house to be with their child.

Photo: archive of Black Back studio
“I would like to take the project to mass production and think that hospital wards would order them. Ideally, I would like to set up a charity system so the hospitals would not have to pay for the chairs themselves. I think that the chair has potential not only in the Czech Republic but also abroad, and not just in hospitals but in personal homes. It doesn’t have to be just for premature babies, but can be used as a maternity chair for any new born.”

As for his own little girl, now eight, Schwarzbeck described her as healthy, happy and active with plenty of hobbies, from piano to skiing.