Casú was designed to help children with autism feel safe to have a moment for themselves when they are feeling overstimulated or are in crisis.
Casú was a co-creation between Catharina Sievers, Jeferson Maximo, and me. The project challenge was to create ludic children's furniture. Our focus was on children with autism, who are often marginalized in design solutions. Using quantitative and qualitative research alongside Crazy Eight and personas, we learned that children with autism face particular difficulty in situations where they are overstimulated. Casú, an abbreviation of the word cocoon in Portuguese, is a headboard that can be hung in the bedroom or social living areas. We used neutral materials and colors to avoid overstimulating the child and creating hyper-focus.