Reset

Salon del Mobile in Milan is the world’s biggest design and furniture fair showcasing innovative work and ideas. In 2017, we collaborated with UNStudio, SCAPE and Dr. Teresa de Sanctis to create the fully immersive installation RESET, which was featured as part of a ‘Workspace 3.0 - a Joyful Sense at Work’ exhibition curated by Cristina Cutrona. The experiential project was designed to empower people to deal with stress more effectively, by creating an interactive and personalized sensorial experience aimed for corporate workspaces.

Based on the learnings from neurological research of neuroscientist Dr. Teresa de Sanctis, the RESET pods were designed to empower people to deal with stress more effectively through creating physically, socially and psychologically healthy spaces. For Salone del Mobile two of the five prototype workspaces were on show – ‘Sound’ for an expressive and interactive experience and ‘Intimacy’ creating a more meditative atmosphere. The colours, sounds and movement of each pods determined the user’s heart rhythm and information provided through an EEG monitor (tracing electric signals in the brain) to take them on a personalised and abstract journey, with the data later available on the cloud to help track employee stress levels.

As the RESET pods needed to be built in Milan, we used VR to create the designs beforehand. The team could ‘walk around’ the pods in virtual reality and work on the technical aspects and functionality before building it in real life in Milan. As a result, it took us less than a month to build the prototype.

Salon del Mobile visitors enjoyed the RESET experience, which offered a break from everyday pressures to rebalance, refocus and reset.