Cloud Table

^{Type -  event table, interior & exhibition design}

^{Manufacturing - Fiction Factory}

^{location - Salone del Mobile, Milan (IT)}

^{office - Studio Maks (NL)}

^{status - prototype, 2014}

^{role - junior architect}

Imagine you are rushing through a noisy design fair and your device’s power is running low. You might be looking for some information about the desired manufacturers, or just want to find a quiet yet stimulating corner where you can have a chat with your partner. For Ventura Lambrate we created the Cloud table, an ^{event table} that explores the possibilities of tables for information exchange and networking. This large, yet light and elegantly-crafted table offers a place to be and allows its visitors to connect socially in a physical and a virtual space.

We proposed to integrate IT services into the Cloud table with a loose webbing of three different purposes to achieve a coherent intelligent surface. Charging stations can become a nest for informal meetings where they put on and off their devices on the tabletop to charge their batteries, wire- and clutter-free. The area of one-way marketing turns into a community boosted proximity datasharing field where visitors can communicate with the exhibitors. ^{A multitouch desktop} enables a deeper common experience while browsing through related catalogues, webpages or by interacting with each other through various artworks.


The project brought together researchers and practitioners from art, architecture, technology and craftmanship to explore the emerging role of ‘situate’́ technologies in the design, which outcomes are embodied in our prototype. I was primarily in charge of technological research, as the mediation between different parties, and involved in carpentry constructing, though the most part I spent with form-giving studies, testing spatial relations using models from 1:20 up to 1:1 scale. Our multidisciplinary team used wireless technology and lightweight infrastructure to make the  ́Cloud table ́ a collaborative place for exploring the hidden dimensions of the Ventura Lambrate.