A collaboration with Dutch trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort, Google’s Softwear exhibition demonstrates the harmony between technology and interior design.
May 2nd, 2018
Last week, Milan’s historical buildings were yet again taken over by the design world’s usual suspects for Milan Design Week. Among these luminaries appeared another that, at first glance, might have seemed somewhat at odds with the Scandi-chic wooden chairs and artistic lighting installations populating the rest of the event’s exhibitions.
Alongside leading names such as Sé and Jacopo Foggini showing at Rossana Orlandi gallery was tech giant Google, marking an unprecedented debut of a top tech company at the furniture and design fair.
Google’s VP of Hardware Design Ivy Ross collaborated with Dutch trend forecaster and curator of the show Lidewij Edelkoort in order to create the exhibition Softwear, an immersive, multi-room installation that took the cocooning design trend to the next level.
Revisiting an idea that Edelkoort had put forward in 1998, the exhibition showcased how technology seamlessly blends with soft furnishings and other every day home and lifestyle items. Think a tablet carelessly tossed onto a comfortable couch along with a throw, or a VR headset looking perfectly at home hanging on a coat rack next to handbags and winter knitwear.
The exhibition not only prompted questions about the rapidly evolving role that technology is playing in the realm of design, it also re-contextualised electronics as design objects. Google Glass might have prompted guffaws at its outdated, clunky aesthetics when it first came out, for instance, but the home and mobile hardware on display in Softwear were as stylish and contemporary as home decor piece, with sleek, sculptural shapes and a minimalist aesthetic in place of unsightly metals and wires.
Softwear spanned three simple, white rooms that featured Google’sPixel phones, Home speakers, and Daydream View VR headsets mingling with one-of-a-kind jacquard fabric wall hangings by designer Kiki van Eijk, fashionable clothing and a mix of furniture and accessories such as wooden tables, teaware, seating and even sprigs of greenery.
Having worked with Google for a number of years, Edelkoort aimed to demonstrate how the convenience of technology has changed our lives by granting us more free time to spend on leisure and on friends and family, as well as how technological devices seamlessly integrate within our living spaces rather than disrupt them.
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
‘The Elevation of Gravity’ installation was an immersive showcase of innovation that heralded the debut of Gaggenau’s groundbreaking Essential Induction cooktop.
Channelling the enchanting ambience of the Caffè Greco in Rome, Budapest’s historic Gerbeaud, and Grossi Florentino in Melbourne, Ross Didier’s new collection evokes the designer’s affinity for café experience, while delivering refined seating for contemporary hospitality interiors.
Savage Design’s approach to understanding the relationship between design concepts and user experience, particularly with metalwork, transcends traditional boundaries, blending timeless craftsmanship with digital innovation to create enduring elegance in objects, furnishings, and door furniture.
In the pursuit of an uplifting synergy between the inner world and the surrounding environment, internationally acclaimed Interior Architect and Designer Lorena Gaxiola transform the vibration of the auspicious number ‘8’ into mesmerising artistry alongside the Feltex design team, brought to you by GH Commercial.
‘The Elevation of Gravity’ installation was an immersive showcase of innovation that heralded the debut of Gaggenau’s groundbreaking Essential Induction cooktop.
From a modular armchair and statement lighting, to a table crafted from coffee waste and reissued classics, these are the best new products to launch at this year’s Milan Design Week.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
With Milan 2024 only a few weeks away, we sneak a view of some of the most exciting pieces set to go on show – from lighting design to furniture, here are nine preview products.
Dallas Rogers, Head of Urban Discipline at the School of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney, comments on the history of map-making in our cities.
In the pursuit of an uplifting synergy between the inner world and the surrounding environment, internationally acclaimed Interior Architect and Designer Lorena Gaxiola transform the vibration of the auspicious number ‘8’ into mesmerising artistry alongside the Feltex design team, brought to you by GH Commercial.