mycoocoon: Color Immersion Pod
Pantone Universe founders create a chromotherapy pod for sensory stimulation and relaxation at London restaurant Sketch
by Caroline Kinneberg
Experimental chef Pierre Gagnaire’s Sketch restaurant, a London design haven currently featuring work by beloved artist David Shrigley, has welcomed a new installation—a color therapeutic pod called mycoocoon, designed by Lanzavecchia + Wai and Marine Peyre.
Before entering the pod, visitors are instructed to choose the color they’re most attracted to on an iPad. Another set of three colors appears, and they’re again asked to select one. After one more set, a final color is revealed: red (representing passion, vitality and enthusiasm), orange (extroversion, creativity, cheerfulness), magenta (love, kindness, emotion), yellow, green, turquoise, blue or purple. Next they hop into the pod, splaying out on the super-soft leather lounge. Users are removed from their surroundings by the overhead hut and bluetooth headphones that play soothing natural sounds, singing bowls and vocals. Six light sources are hidden behind the headrest, enveloping the visitor in nuances of the chosen color.
“We wanted to create a relaxing and energizing experience that associates ancestral techniques with today’s technology,” mycoocoon co-founder Valérie Corcias tells Cool Hunting. Color, she explains, has been used for healing and spiritual strengthening around the world, from Egypt to India and China. Color is a form of energy, and each shade has a specific rhythm and wavelength, giving it a unique vibration. Chromotherapy specifically revolves around the theory that each person is drawn to the color that best balances the individual’s energy levels and stimulates the senses.
Corcias and her partner Dominique Kelly, who launched the Pantone Universe licensing brand together in 2000, united a team of notable experts in furniture design, color therapy, music and lighting to create mycoocoon. After three years in development, the prototype at Sketch—priced at £37,000—is the only one in existence. An “immersion wall” of lights (₤7,000) is also available for smaller spaces or massage salons. Corcias and Kelly are exploring different environments for the pods, including airport lounges, hotels and offices. The pod can also be rented for events, where guests receive a pin button of their color. According to Corcias and Kelly, the experience makes an easy icebreaker by connecting people via their colors.
Their ideas for mycoocoon are expansive. “In the long run we want mycoocoon to involve all five senses,” explained Kelly. The team has worked with aromatherapists to produce scents and are talking with nutritionists to develop color-coordinated foods and juices. A portion of mycoocoon’s profits will go toward Contramundo, an incubator for sustainable projects involving women and education founded by Corcias and Kelly in a Brazilian fishermen’s village. Corcias says the inspiration for mycoocoon comes in part from Contramundo. “It’s about taking the time to reenergize.”
As the guestbook attests, visitors at Sketch have enjoyed the immersion pod. The only complaint was from someone who fell asleep for 20 minutes—and missed his dinner reservation.
Visit mycoocoon at Sketch (9 Conduit St, London) through 20 November 2014.
Images courtesy of mycoocoon
