Hizkia Wibisana

I first wanted to gen up on the uses and functionalities of the various types of door format. I became particularly interested during the research phase in an opening and closing mechanism frequently used in furniture construction in the 1960s: the rollup door.

I made an attempt to understand it better by building a model out of three pieces of wood, a sushi roll and a kitchen roll. I sensed that I wanted to discover further mechanisms for myself and went outside, keeping my eyes peeled for anything and everything that can be opened and closed.

I stumbled by chance upon the thing towards which I wished to direct my focus: I opened my garage with a mechanism known as an access control device. It establishes who is entering or leaving at which location and time. I had an access code in this instance that empowered me to unlock the garage door.

It was at this point that I had an idea born of a frequently encountered situation in which getting in is not so easy: I’m carrying bulging bags of shopping in both hands. Either I have to put them down in order to get in or else I have to barge the door open with the weight of my body hoping I don’t drop the shopping in the process. Neither is ideal. So, how about an opening mechanism that can be elbow-operated? The idea was given added momentum by an item of information I came across whilst conducting my research: 39 per cent of the world’s population suffer from some physical disability.

Mass-produced door handles of the kind in general use everywhere are not designed in a way that takes account of disabilities or the impaired functioning of hands. Opening doors is thus made difficult, if not impossible, for people with disabilities.

Last but not least: the past few years during which we’ve all been in the grip of the Corona pandemic have demonstrated that hands are not always the best option – I’ve noticed plenty of people adopting the habit of opening doors with their elbows.

I began with a thousand sketches, with one particular idea asserting itself: that of printing a door-handle support in 3D that is itself connected to the original door handle. I experimented with cardboard and polystyrene beforehand so as to find out how a door can be most conveniently opened by elbow.

That posed a challenge, since I needed to be able to attach the device to an existing door handle. I went back one stage, therefore, and reflected upon my sketches. I then proceeded to visualise these sketches in 3D with the Blender program.

I’m satisfied with the outcome illustrated here, which allowed me to kick off the final phase of the project. I considered four alternative blueprints and designs for a handle that enables a door to be opened either by hand or by elbow. I produced full-scale prototypes of each of my draft-designs adopting the 3D-printing process. I obtained titanium frames and a rubbery material code-named TPU95A that I wrapped around the frame. The tension generated by the filament yields the pressure point needed to open a door with a handle.

I learned much about Otl Aicher’s personality and creative outpourings during my research. It was the centenary of his birth, after all, that triggered this project being run together with FSB.

I was particularly fascinated by his book Hand und Griff, the study he devoted to the human hand with a view to conceiving a perfect door handle that a person’s hand can take hold of intuitively. But that’s not all: it was ultimately his pioneering spirit, his boldly lending shape to his own view of things, that struck me.

I think Otl Aicher would have liked the question that guided me through my project: Why should it only be possible to open a door by hand? Why not also with one’s elbow?