(^2019) STYLE DESIGN
IT’S A CONUNDRUM: WE’VE
always wanted our televi-
sions to be big yet incon-
spicuous. Many even come
loaded with wallpapers like The Starry
Night in an effort to blend in when not
in use. With the LG Signature OLED TV
R9’s rollable screen, the television isn’t
just hidden, it disappears. “Screens
are getting larger and larger and, on or
off, they dominate living spaces,” says
designer Mike Holland, who watches
shows at his home on a modest
43-inch flatscreen because anything
larger would take over the living room.
LG developed a two-penny-thick
organic LED (OLED) screen that can
twist and bend, then tasked Holland’s
London firm Foster + Partners to turn
the tech into a better TV. Their creation:
A screen that rises and falls (using a
rack-and-pinion system like a car’s
steering mechanism) out of a shin-
high Dolby Atmos soundbar. After using
models and virtual-reality simulations
to test ideas—like having the screen
come out of the wall, fall from the ceil-
ing, or even form a showy upright cyl-
inder—Holland and his team decided
the pop-up was less distracting. “The
key here is that it can roll up and is in-
credibly discreet and quiet,” he says,
“making it look something more akin to
sculpture than to visible technology.”
This isn’t the world’s first disappear-
ing TV—even Wayfair sells credenzas
that allow rigid flat panels to rise and
fall—but it is by far the smallest. The
base of the 65-inch TV takes up little
space, making it easier to place in
front of a window, behind a sofa, or in
any other nonwall adjacent locations.
“It’ll enable the living space and furni-
ture to be used in a different way when
we are not watching TV,” Holland says.
In an era when most of us are ques-
tioning the ubiquity and intrusion of
technology, the time is ripe for a tele-
vision that truly hides itself. “It’s very
much ‘TV on demand,’ ” says Holland.
“The ability for technology to com-
pletely disappear is something that
will soon become part of all consumer
electronics.” $TBD; lg.com
MIKE HOLLAND
Head of Industrial
Design, Foster +
Partners
A Real On-Demand TV
INNOVATORS
THE BETTER
SKULL SAVER
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