Zoha Tasneem

My thesis project reframes routine actions in cancer care as rituals through micro-spatial design. Using thresholds, memory objects, and symbolic lighting, it introduces deliberate pauses that help patients regain emotional grounding during periods of instability.

At the center is a portable ritual box that travels with the patient between home and hospital. Its form references familiar personal objects—vanity cases, briefcases—that invite slow, intentional handling. Opening the box involves releasing metal latches, lifting compartments, and engaging with materials that acquire warmth and patina over time. These gestures create a shift from routine to ritual.

Inside, the box becomes a small interior architecture of the self. Patients embed memory through color, fabric, scent, and magnetized objects that can be rearranged as their emotional landscape shifts. These objects are chosen not for nostalgia but to ground patients in moments of personal strength when identity feels in flux.

Lighting plays a central role. Instead of the cool, task-oriented illumination of clinical settings, the box creates a warm 2700K-to-3000K micro-environment inspired by the temporal softness of candlelight. Two integrated sources—an ambient top light and a movable task light—stay at a low level of activity when closed and brighten gradually as the box opens, forming a perceptual threshold to a slower, more intentional moment. Rather than lighting the room, the system defines an intimate field of focus that maintains its atmosphere even in fluorescent hospital spaces.

Each use ends with a small mark or notation, creating a layered archive of return and resilience.