Google lets us
feel AT E A S E
WITH TECH
TECHNOLOGY – By now, you’ve probably
heard all about Google’s A Space for Being
immersive installation, one of the standouts
of this year’s Milan Design Week. Partici-
pants stayed for five minutes in each of the
three distinct rooms devised by architect
Suchi Reddy; their biometrics would later
reveal which space made them feel most at
ease, and therefore was deemed better for
their overall health.
But the fact that this installation
worked so smoothly was due to the nearly
invisible work of three objects explicitly
designed to blend in: an armband, a peb-
ble and a printer. Featuring the company’s
signature plastextile hardware surface –
a halfway state between a polycarbonate
and a piece of poplin – the band in no way
revealed its function, which was to measure
vital signs. No display, no beeping lights.
What’s more: it resembled the innocuous slap
bracelet beloved by children in the 1980s. »M
are
mo
ss
o
OBJECTS 29