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TRANSFORM Dynamic Furniture Concept Becomes What You Need
TRANSFORM is a dynamic furniture concept created at MIT. The idea is to have furniture that adapts to the moment-by-moment changes in the needs of users.
TRANSFORM, developed by MIT, is a dynamic furniture concept that uses shape display technology to adapt in real-time to users' needspic.twitter.com/TIuSKCpq5B
— Cats & Dogs Universe (@CatsandDogsmem) February 25, 2025
The TRANSFORM project is ten years old, but still cool.
TRANSFORM fuses technology and design to celebrate its transformation from a piece of still furniture to a dynamic machine driven by the stream of data and energy. Created by Professor Hiroshi Ishii and the Tangible Media Group from the MIT Media Lab, TRANSFORM aims to inspire viewers with unexpected transformations, as well as the aesthetics of the complex machine in motion. TRANSFORM was first exhibited in LEXUS DESIGN AMAZING 2014 MILAN in April 2014.The work is comprised of three dynamic shape displays that move more than one thousand pins up and down in realtime to transform the tabletop into a dynamic tangible display. The kinetic energy of the viewers, captured by a sensor, drives the wave motion represented by the dynamic pins.
The motion design is inspired by the dynamic interactions among wind, water and sand in nature, Escher’s representations of perpetual motion, and the attributes of sand castles built at the seashore. TRANSFORM tells the story of the conflict between nature and machine, and its reconciliation, through the ever-changing tabletop landscape.
(Via MIT.)
The TRANSFORM concept was predicted by Larry Niven in his 1969 story Death by Ecstasy:
I'd glanced into the bathroom, knowing what I would find. It was the size of a comfortable shower stall. An adjustment panel outside the door would cause it to extrude various appurtenances in memory plastic, to become a washroom, a shower stall, a toilet, a dressing room, a steam cabinet. Luxurious in everything but size, as long as you pushed the right buttons.
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TRANSFORM Dynamic Furniture Concept Becomes What You Need
'An adjustment panel outside the door would cause it to extrude various appurtenances in memory plastic...' - Larry Niven (1969).
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