SABUR
My final project for MAS in Luxury Design and Craftsmanship at ECAL is an extension of an ongoing personal exploration and study on mindfulness and self-awareness, and how design objects can positively impact our consciousness. Particularly, I was focusing on the intention of patience and trust in the present moment.
In Bosnia, we have borrowed this word, Sabur, from our eastern neighbors. A truncated translation is that it means to be patient. The more poetic interpretation is to have spiritual strength. Specifically, in hard times to invest one’s energy in both acceptance of the current situation, while simultaneously working towards a better tomorrow (ie. not surrendering to negative bias). In combination with my ongoing research into mindfulness and design, I focused on creating a public-use object of semi-monumental scale. It would serve as both a functional and visual assist in encouraging, demystifying and maintaining a mindfulness practice.
If true luxury is our time, what object could I design to help emphasize this truth, and allow us to guiltlessly embrace time for ourselves? If we are anxious about the past and especially the future, how could a design object help us stay in the present? How could this object change and evolve with time?
Sabur Meditation Pad is made out of llama-beige Egyptian stone, and is intended to be installed across our public spaces, springing up like mushrooms after rain. With overall DIA of 130cm (51”) and seating area of 32cm (13”) it both invites individual and shared mindfulness moments. The topology of Sabur metaphorically reflects a drop in water, rippling out from the center core—not unlike our own energy as it emits from us. The top surface is raw intentionally, allowing us to sit in comfort with all of our complex emotions. As a meditation pad, or a public bench, Sabur is designed with intention to encourage discourse about our anxieties and open up a space where we can start to understand each other, by first understanding ourselves.
Despite its wide diameter of 130cm, Sabur is only about 6cm thick at its core, tapering on both sides to a 3cm edge. This gives the object and appearance of floating above ground. The only aspect of the piece that was machine cut was the outer circle perimeter. The rest of the model, including the center core and smooth convex bottom half, was hand carved and polished. As Sabur is also a reflection of my personal journey of processing a childhood (and thereby, adulthood) affected by the trauma of war and displacement, it contains 26 ridges from the center core—one for each year since 1992.
Principal Designer: Amina Horozić
Stonemason: David Springett
Photography: Simone Sandahi
