Physical to digital: products interact with humans in a new “Design Experience”

23/03/2017 – The 2017 Archiproducts Milano edition offers a new ‘Design Experience’ with connected objects, digital interactions, and augmented reality.

Furniture talks to people in the 31 Via Tortona building. Ok, it looks like a joke, but it is true, more than we could be aware of. We are talking about ‘Phygital’ here: a passage from physical to digital in an osmotic synthesis where the two realms blend with each other. This is what is going to happen from April 3rd at Archiproducts Milan: products that shape the new setting will interact with visitors talking to them, telling visitors everything about them via digital devices.

With the Archiproducts Scan app, each object on display releases a ‘cookie’ showing specs, the variants, available colors, and prices. All the information is saved on the visitor’s device. They could later get to know more about the product and purchase it online. This is proximity marketing, it’s the Internet of Things. It’s the future of e-commerce and retail projects as well as the future of houses, Architecture and Interior Design.

‘We are exploring a new retail concept – as Enzo Maiorano, co-founder of the network, says – in which the product experience counts more than the pure visual knowledge. The visitor can acquire much more information compared to what a single displayed product can offer. This is the first step on a path where visitor and object get closer, and the path goes on adding in digital devices. This way also online purchases are simplified.’

The Design Experience will start on the ground floor where the Archiproducts Shop touch point is. A super interactive micro shop window represents the vast online store  that adds thousands of new products and brands every day which are sold worldwide.

Inside the shop, an ideal set will suggest one of the many possible concepts which can be made with the Archiproducts online collection. Thanks to Augmented Reality technology developed by Sayduck, a startup of the network, products can be placed in a 3D representation of the same set, simulating different and multiple furniture combinations.

‘We set up an ideal living – Maiorano continues – symbolizing the idea of a house. Using augmented reality technology visitors can choose a product from the Archiproducts catalog, visualize it in 3D and contextualize it on the set’.

Archiproducts Shop touch point is hosted in a new space in the same building with two shop windows in Via Tortona and also an entrance from the Opificio 31courtyard. An industrial space renovated with the cooperation of new partners who chose to take part in the 2017 edition of Archiproducts Milan.
Oikos gave the building facade a new total black look.
Ideal Work renovated the flooring with the new Architop concrete – polymer system.
Flos made the lighting system with Infra-structure designed by Vincent Van Duysen: the first and presently the largest installation since the system was put into production.
Knauf provided false ceilings, and Vanoncini helped with the installation.
Linvisibile made the all-height tilting doors which close the arches connecting the rooms.

A creative space suggests what can be done with the online Archiproducts items.
Get in touch with products and get inspired!