FSB – Justus Poggenburg - The physical push-pull

From little-noticed to captivating

Justus Poggenburg

My project colleagues and I applied our minds to opening and closing mechanisms in the “In and Out” project, mostly with reference to doorlike objects. In the course of our research I encountered several situations and objects other than doors with opening and closing functions – garage and barrier systems for instance.

But I was most interested in conducting research into containers. I built a model of one as a means of grasping all the components in its opening and closing mechanisms. All these parts – door leafs, bars, handles, claws and their holding devices, hinges attached to both the door leafs and the body of the container, fastenings for the bars, locks for the handles and even the seal that has to be broken open – made me aware of just how complex mechanisms I had always taken for granted actually are.

I applied what I had realised to the situation of a main entrance door. First I identified all the components that showed me how they function and are used. These include the door leaf with its edges, the frame, the handle and the hinges. A doorbell, camera and intercom may also be involved. I hadn’t realised prior to the project that there is a form of communication between door objects (with opening and closing mechanisms); I had operated furniture in a perfunctory way that was stored in my memory banks as an automated process.

And wherever the means of opening or closing a door is not readily discernible, information is provided on stickers or labels. All the aforementioned components and communication features are visual. We appropriate information through the acts of seeing and reading, whereafter it is processed by our brain. There is only one point at which we enjoy a physical link with the door and that’s when we push or pull the handle.

It was at this point that a question came to me that influenced the further course of my project:
Is it possible to intuitively decode the data for pushing and pulling by establishing a link with a particular shape, material or other property possessed by the door handle?

Material, shape and communication

I began by drafting a handle that was to intuitively communicate precisely this information, i.e. how it is to be pushed or pulled. My first draft-designs were as varied as could be. Despite having the same point of departure, one draft-design contained more information than the other.

The version on the right shows a familiar shape of door handle, one in which the information on pushing and pulling is conveyed by the nature of the materials used – a hard material for stability and a softer material suggestive of a surface to be pressed against. The user’s hand virtually sinks into the material and predefines the direction of motion in this way.

A second draft-design was of an organic looking shape and was given a thumbrest. Here, too, use was made of two materials. It became evident, however, that this handle is more difficult to decode and that, hence, its operation does not necessarily proceed intuitively.

Further models followed, including one with a tube as its grip, information on the operation of which might be conveyed in a manner that could be misunderstood, despite the fact that the process would be quite fun.

first blueprints with various materials

There are two means of conveying operating information: by material and shape. Though the question as to the right material remained unresolved except in the first case, the running of several cycles yielded a number of softer, pleasant-to-grip plastics or wood as options.

My focus on shape led me to realise each draft-design would have to be produced in order to be tested. That would have been input-intensive and expensive too. Which is when I hit on the idea of a modular door handle with a core section and an “add-on” that would provide the information on the handle’s operation. It was to be possible for the handle to be either pulled or pushed.

I therefore drafted two objects: a conventionally styled core section with a turning mechanism cursorily set out. Here, I opted for edges radiused towards the door leaf. The add-on mimics the volume generated by the user’s hand when enclosing a door handle. Two different parts of the hand play a key role in pushing and pulling a handle. The fingers pull whilst the palm pushes. The main surface of the handle ought, therefore, to be designed to accommodate both of these situations: the handle conveys to the user’s fingers a feeling of becoming wrapped round something and hence of gripping securely as opposed to slipping off the edge.

The section’s width is adapted accordingly for the palm so as to ensure several points of contact and to enable greater pressure to be exerted on the handle. Thus, there is one contact surface but two positions. The correct shape was subsequently arrived at in many of the models I drafted and whose applicability and conveyance of information I tested.

Correlations with Otl Aicher’s work

final add-on

final core structure/sub-assembly

I paid thought throughout the process to whether aspects of my own work correlated in any way with that of Otl Aicher. The “In and Out” project is, after all, being run as a discourse on his work and in collaboration with FSB. Looking back I can state that correlations of this kind do, indeed, exist.

My door handles constitute the point at which the various strands of Aicher’s creative output converge, not least the Four-Point Guide to Good Grip he authored:

1. Thumbrest,
2. Forefinger furrow,
3. Gripping volume,
4. Support for the palm.