Ailisha Shannon
“Exhale has meant a lot of things to me personally. Over the last 1.5 years, Exhale has challenged me to combine all of my previous work experience, interests and theories, bring them together into one project, and put them to the test. The fact that Exhale has been able to support and connect so many students is absolutely amazing.”
Exhale has meant..
...a lot of things to me personally. Over the last 1.5 years, Exhale has challenged me to combine all of my previous work experience, interests and theories, bring them together into one project, and put them to the test. The fact that Exhale has been able to support and connect so many students is absolutely amazing. When I started this project, as Creative Director and project Lead, I had two goals: I wanted to create a healthy team where team members could be creative and open, and above all, after hearing feedback from students, I wanted to give students a safe space to relax, connect and create. I wanted to create a bubble of warmth and connection to offset the intellectual intensity that the TU Delft campus can sometimes be. Though goals are never obtained without their challenges, I'm very happy to say that we, the Exhale team and student body combined, have succeeded in creating exactly that. And that means a lot.
Looking back, there are many memorable moments...
...at Exhale, and our opening event was one of them. I had already talked myself into accepting that hardly any students would show up because we were so new. Before long the whole building was flooded with students, chatting, socializing, and eating. Flocks of students grabbed our board games and set up a spontaneous board game night upstairs with every table filled, they stayed playing and laughing until closing and then neatly packed everything away again and thanked us profusely. That was when I realized that students just needed the right facilities: a warm place to be. They would take care of the rest.
I'm proud that I managed to create...
...a space together with my team that has meant so much to so many students and made so many people feel comfy and at home and has fostered many new connections. As a visual professional, it can be hard to communicate the importance and impact of social design, branding and communicating with humanity and warmth to those outside of my field. Exhale was a unique opportunity to build an entirely new mini world, from the bottom up with an entirely new team. If Exhale were a pilot then it clearly proves that form and intention determine function: social design is not to be underestimated.
To ease the sense of loss many students might feel...
...after Exhale closes, TU Delft could focus on open, welcoming and comforting spaces where students can rest, socialise and intermingle without time- or financial limitations. I'm very happy to see that X is renewingsocial spaces for students at X. Before Exhale we had no idea how the project would go and how students would respond. Now we are leaving, it is great to see that X is responding so quickly to the feedback and desires that students communicated through Exhale.
For the last week of Exhale, you can expect a full week of events, workshops and get-togethers in typical Exhale style. All events were created to warm you up and help you recharge for winter. If you could only pick one event out of the whole week, I would defiantly mark the Good Bye Pajama party on Friday the 29th of November in your calander. It will be our very last Exhale event before we close. It's going to be a wild night in with a DJ, burgers & drinks, a chocolate fountain, tarot reading, pillow fights and much much more. So grab your sweatpants or pyjamas and come hang out!
