[Image: Google Design Studio + Reddymade Architecture]
The Milan Furniture Fair, aka Salone de Mobile, is the most important design event of the year, drawing designers and manufacturers from all over the planet. So it was a statement when Google, in 2018, showed up at Milan for the first time ever, to show off its soft, domestic technologies, like the fabric-covered Google Home. The company’s debut installation wasn’t radical, but it foregrounded Google’s recent focus on industrial design–and it hinted at how Google has positioned itself as a design leader over the past few years.
This year at Salone, which opens on April 9th, Google will make its second appearance at the exhibition. But instead of looking where the company has been, Ivy Ross, VP of Hardware design, wants to tease where Google is going next–namely, your psyche. “We’re at a place in our trajectory of society which says step into your individuality, know who you are, what you want, and what works for you,” says Ross. “We have to be able to, as makers in the world, support that.”
The installation is called A Space for Being: Exploring Design’s Impact On Our Biology, and it digs into the topic of neuroaesthetics–basically, the study of how beauty affects your brain. It’s three rooms that will be set up in Spazio Maiocchi, built in conjunction with architect Suchi Reddy. They’re not exactly identical, but each room decorated with the same furniture line from Muuto, a Scandinavian company with an aesthetic that almost certainly helped inspire Google’s own brand of industrial design.
The actual Muuto furniture pieces are different in every room, as is everything else–color, scent, sound, and lighting. One room will have cool light, vibrant colors, and a percussive rhythms, while another will feature warm light, natural colors, succulents, and a scent described as “uplifting and familiar.”
Visitors to the installation will don a wearable band, which is packed with sensors to measure biometric data like heart rate, skin temperature, skin conductivity, and motion. They’ll be invited to spend five minutes inside each of these uniquely tailored rooms, during which the wearable will measure their biometric response to the subtle variations in design. “There are very different vibes, so to speak, amplified for differences. It’s all very subtle,” says Ross. “Of course people are going to walk into a room and say, ‘I really like this.’ But I hope the band might show their psychology was more comfortable in a different room.”