You thought you left your tiny, single room behind with your dorm days. And then you thought you left it behind after you moved out of that 200 square ft studio. But interaction designer Bernardo Schorr is here to tell you that small space living is here to stay. He thinks we’ll all be living in 100 square foot rooms in the not too distant future — tiny, windowless rooms at that. His solution? Digitized walls that project changing windows, to turn your little bunker into a livable space.
He explains that his concept “is made for a future in which having any windows at all would be a luxury. We might not really need these ‘mixed reality’ living spaces quite yet, but the project is made for a future in which we’ll need them to be able to cope with confinement and survive these smaller apartments.”
Besides the walls, he’s even designed furniture itself to adapt to a tiny space. Think a desk turning into a table turning into a chair. As you move the furniture, it signals the projections to change to reflect the passing of the day. “There are a lot of biological needs we have in terms of when we need to see the sun and how to we need regulate our living through light. If we have no windows, these augmented windows need to tell us also what is changing in the outside world, so it feels natural and comfortable and just overall livable,” Schorr tells Fast Co.
To create the space, Schorr used a combo of photography, video and computer graphics, but the windows don’t reflect any real location. The prototype is low-res enough that you can see the pixels, but more time and higher tech equipment will make it seamless.
Even with the tech issues resolved, it’s hard to swallow that we all might be living in windowless boxes someday. But that’s part of Schorr’s master plan: The project is supposed to inspire questioning and debate about population growth. “It’s an opportunity for critical reflection on whether this is really the direction we should be heading towards.”
What do you think of Schorr’s projected future? Sound off below!
