Wellbeing at Your Feet: Thankspressure Rug by Osangmin Studio.

Combining the benefits of acupressure with dance, Thankspressure Rug is a piece of homeware like no other. Designed by Sangmin Oh, final year student of the highly acclaimed Design Academy Eindhoven, Thankspressure treats six common ailments — headaches, eye strain, stiffness, stomach-aches, constipation and period pains — via a unique raised pattern on the textile surface.

Two realms of acupressure and dance, serious and exciting, eastern and western are playfully joined in this project. A new universal language is intertwined and born again by uniting textile technologies.

“The project is about the combination of two worlds and how people have used their feet,” says the young Korea-born, Netherlands-based designer. “I searched and shared how human feet have experienced the spaces depending on different cultures. With the eastern medical acupressure and western sports dance research, I have found one stage to unite two pieces of knowledge. Moreover, this concept has been developed and visualized with the experiments of textile materials, colours, and techniques. And it was produced and collaborated with TextielLab in Tilburg. Additionally, a book accompanied by the carpet shows how to use this carpet technically. At the same time, it tells the story of how two worlds harmonize in a piece of work.”

Sangmin Oh established his eponymous art and design studio in 2021, influenced by sculptural crafts, the colour of explored materials and architectural elements. Osangmin Studio focuses on “observing trivial and small empty spaces, aside from spaces that are displayed amongst people’s daily hectic movements. I want to fill up those brief, empty spaces. They can be filled up with emotional or visual stories or even with new realizations,” says the designer.

For more information, visit @osangmin_studio

Related: Jungle Rug Collection by Jan Kath.

[Images courtesy of Osangmin Studio.]