Design on Prescription

Officinet once served as the pharmacy of Frederiks Hospital (today Designmuseum Danmark), and the word officin translates from Latin to “workshop”: a place where something is mixed, refined, and dispensed. Lise Vester brings together craftsmanship, material research and healing design principles in atmospheric works, where sound, reflections, light and bodily posture are “prescribed” as poetic pauses. The exhibition is supported by underlying sound design, scents, and insights into how design and neuroaesthetics (the study of how sensory experiences affect perception, emotion and wellbeing) can support mental wellbeing in everyday life.

“I am interested in how design can capture the small, magical ‘awe’ experiences we know from nature, like when we look up at the sky and are struck by a particular mood, or by unexpected elements that give us new ways of experiencing and understanding the world. In the exhibition, I work with the senses, the body and aesthetic experiences as a kind of alchemist - mixing materials, light, form and experimental techniques into new perspectives and sensory pauses”

A pharmacy of the senses

The exhibition is built around four long "pharmacy plinths," each exploring a specific sense and prescribing a poetic pause:

Sound - wind chimes in different tones are activated by air and movement. The air is made audible and fills the space with sound - a marker and a small dose of novelty that awakens attention and presence.

Sight - Reflections mirrors in mouth-blown glass, where concave and convex reflections merge, shifting the viewpoint and opening new perspectives on space and body.

Light - the Lighthouse chandelier as an atmospheric light work and sensory marker, creating fluid light formations and inviting movement, wonder and calm.

Body - Dream View Bench invites a reclined pause with the gaze directed upward toward the sky, a simple bodily ritual that creates space for daydreaming in everyday life.

Alongside the works, the plinths display process elements: optical glass lenses, scale models, prototypes, and research notes. These are presented in precisely cut niches inspired by the systematic rhythms of pharmacy drawers and pill packaging. Each work is accompanied by a small “design prescription” detailing the science, inspiration, and techniques behind the object.

Around the space, other works can also be experienced, including Fragments and Dream View Sphere, exploring perception, daydreaming and shifts in perspective. The exhibition also features a “prescription machine” that prints fictional “prescriptions” with graphic drawings and short texts, a playful guide to the experience and a way to take the exhibition’s principles home.