Soft Home Elle Decor Italia

Elle Decor Soft Home by Marcante Testa/UdA Architetti at Palazzo Bovara, Photo © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace | #MILANTRACE2016

The Home Garden. And indoor green area which creates the link to the outside garden. A collection of large leaves of Monstera and Philodendrons interact with the game of mirrors with constant references to The Jungle Book and the world of subtropical forests.
Photography © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

The Spectacular Living Room. Thanks to the on-demand streaming service for movies and TV series, soon we’ll be able to see the premier of new releases. In Soft Home’s theatre, the selection of movies is personalised according to your mood. From the comfort of your sofa, rather than a remote control, one uses a mood selector associated with three film genres: East, for those in the mood for exoticism and the Orient; Future, for catapulting oneself into “tomorrow”; and Romance, for escaping daily life and immersing yourself in a dream.
Photography © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

The Forgetful Living Room. The objects that surround us have a story known only to those who have collected them. They are the repositories of memories stored in our mind as a virtual database. Touching upon one of the displays on the shelf enables the simultaneous activation of the 10 wall screens to showcase associated photographs in a sequence. A true digital picture album that retraces the important moments of life.
Photography © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

The Inspired Living Room. Today we collect works of art, paintings, drawings, lithographs, 2D and 3D sculptures: Soft Home makes it possible to have a continuous gallery of digital works that explore new languages of artistic expression, chosen by a portfolio of international artists on the basis of the subject. There are four collections, selected by four curators, and personalised according to four themes: Synthetic Landscapes, Human Nature, Time and Still Life, with a mixture of still works and videos.
Photography © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

The Ringing Gallery. A true playroom, a sensory space which invites you to explore its surface using your senses of touch and hearing. The various stations, varying in shape and material, transform onto musical instruments that, when played like drums, reveal their sounds. This is possible thanks to a device applied to the surface of the structures which combines a vibration sensor with musical software. Visitors could play each station individually or simultaneously, giving life to a collective performance and creating new sounds textures built upon a pre-existing musical track. The tactile exploration associated with each sound is a metaphor which underscores the fact that each material has a specific identity, and how this is fundamental for defining each design project.
Photography © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

The Dainty Bathroom. The water room, a free standing bathtub and energising shower, in a space just for you, dedicated to pampering and beauty, where the mirror functions as a personal coach, getting you off to a good start each day. Approaching the sensitive interface of the mirrored surface, animations appear with personalised mood suggestions for make-up and clothing, motivational messages, good news from around the world, and “green” information regarding the efficient re-use of power and water consumed.
Photography © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

The Dreamy Bedroom. The most intimate and private room in the house is the place where we abandon ourselves to dreams, to fantastic stories, to images freely elaborated and created by the mind while we are sleeping. Dreamlike storytelling randomly mixes different situations and emotions, drawn from our subconscious. In the Soft House’s bedroom every morning we can review them by touching the cover of our Dream Diary next to the bed. Another important piece in this room is the closet. Not only the custodian of one’s personal wardrobe, but also a true personal assistant: reminding us about the day’s appointments, associating us with the current weather conditions and recommending the most appropriate clothing to suit. Approaching the mirror activates a simulation of the interaction with the owner and the animations.
Photography © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

The Crunchy Kitchen. A kitchen with a large, intelligent and friendly table that invites you to prepare your favourite personalised dishes with the help of an invisible chef while, at the centre, it shows you what ingredients are available in the pantry. Selecting one of the specifically identified interactive situations, visitors can choose a theme for their dining experience – Locally Grown, Dinner With Friends and My Comfort Diet.
Photography © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

Set within the spectacular, never-before-accessed-by-the-public Palazzo Bovara on Corso Venezia, Elle Decor Italia staged an unforgettable experience during Milan Design Week 2016 which invited the visitors to explore the new frontiers of living. Via an interactive and digital path that wound through the historic palazzo, a succession of rooms unfolded referencing typical rooms – living, kitchen, dining, bedroom, bathroom and so on, but with a contemporary and interactive twist.

Designed by the inimitable Marcante Testa/UdA Architetti, the installation had a difficult challenge of integrating high-end technologies in an interior project “where an articulated system redefines the stateliness of the environments and brings them to a domestic scale”, as the designers pointed out.

Soft Home got it’s name as the interiors were marked by an idea of widespread softness spread throughout welcoming and comfortable interiors, furnished with designer pieces and custom made decor, standing on an oversized rug designed with new new geometries as a counterpoint to the existing decorative system and supporting soft-tech experience that interact with the visitors. The installation came about from a reflection on progress of incorporated smart technologies for everyday living: on their positive value in helping us simplify our lives, in responding to small and large needs, in keeping us connected with those who are far away, in sharing experiences, in bringing the outside world inside domestic walls, in helping us enjoy our free time, because “staying in is the new going out”.

The soft-tech experience of Soft Home incorporated those innovations that are accelerating the changes in our lives: ‘the Internet of things’, ‘tangible interfaces, ‘deep learning’, ‘biometric sensors’ and ‘big data’. “The interfaces we have designed communicate with their users in an empathetic, personal and even ironic way. They learn from behaviour”, explain the team from H-ART, responsible for the interaction and visual design of the installation.

Our digital world means it is possible for us to have our archive of memories available to use, a personalised collection of art works, our film library, an invisible chef who helps us in choosing the menu, a personal coach who advises us how to take on the day in the best possible way. Spaces to fin ourselves again, to listen to and visualise our emotions, to relive the time spent away from home like in a film.

Super cool concept renderings by Marcante Testa/UdA Architetti for their design of the various “concept rooms” within the Elle Decor Soft Home exhibition during Milan Design Week 2016.