‘Esc.’ is a semi-enclosed chaise lounge chair designed to double as a resting space in public to get away from overpowering outdoor stimuli.

Nowadays, the world is at our fingertips–it can be hard to get away from it all, even for only a minute. Distractions come in the form of digital timelines, midday traffic, lunch rushes, and our own smartphones. Our minds and mental health could benefit from a moment’s rest. Realizing the need for a piece of furniture that could double as a place of respite in public spaces, student designer Toine Baert of Two One Design created ‘Esc.,’ a semi-enclosed chaise lounge chair.

Designed to provide people with a secluded resting area, ‘Esc.’ is essentially a chaise lounge chair that’s partly wrapped in an overhead umbrella-like awning. Baert felt inspired to create a private nook for the Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) to look forward to when the stimuli of everyday life become too much. The overhead awning buffers any noise coming from outside to offer an acoustically, visually, and emotionally quiet hideaway inside. The awning can even be adjusted to varying positions to tread the spectrum between enclosed and semi-enclosed, offering anything between an open bench to a dark zone for sleeping. Made from 100% recycled PET felt and durable wood, ‘Esc.’ was made responsibly and built to last.

With upcoming generations giving more credence to the needs and stressors of mental health, design-focused industries are following suit. ‘Esc.’ was developed in part to showcase the ways that furniture can work as a conduit for change within the field of design, creating solutions for today’s and tomorrow’s obstacles.

Designer: Toine Baert x Two One Design