Creative consultancy and design studio, NewTerritory, presents a new, human-centric approach to smart technology in the home with the release of “Empathic Technology”: a collection of product concepts that explores how technological objects can be embedded within the domestic space in unconventional, yet meaningful ways.
The series of future-focused home and wellbeing devices and architectural fixings is a response to the ever-evolving notion of “home”, which has become increasingly multifunctional, whilst remaining a private temple for our physical and mental health. Split between three different categories, namely Connect, Sense, and Enhance, the concepts sensitively combine emerging technologies with sophisticated design to unveil innovative forms to help us connect, sense our needs and enhance our living environment.
NewTerritory’s three Empathic Technology concepts are:
Connect – Connect features a central connective router tray with dispersible elements, (i.e. omnidirectional speaker and wifi booster) migrating throughout the home to provide network connection, power & sound, allowing users to more easily communicate with one another, empowering the new realities of domestic experience.
Sense – Sense is a set of monitoring devices that integrate into the home to generate data and build a richer picture of our physical and mental needs. It includes a switch, a pendant, and a surface that monitor people and place through sonics, atmospherics, visual references, touch and sound.
Enhance – Enhance is a class of devices that act on sensed data, transforming and enhancing our living environments discretely and in line with deep observation and analysis of our human needs. It revolves around an architecturally integrated smart window frame that has sensors and active filtering technologies embedded within it to filter particulates and pollutants and actively cancel disruptive noise and light.
NewTerritory suggests that all objects could be connected to one another and controlled via a digital platform, helping users see real time visualisations of their private data and the enhancements that connected products are making to the home and their personal wellbeing.
The thoughtfulness element of the concepts is translated in the material philosophy proposed by NewTerritory, expressed in three principles of empathic technology, Living Cycle, Aesthetic of Purpose, and Humane Touch.
- Living Cycle – Acknowledges, respects and utilises natural cycles of growth, use and decay, to inform a palette of natural or reclaimed materials.
- Aesthetic of Purpose – Celebrates the inherent surface qualities of materials which use a reclaimed feedstock.
- Humane Touch – A humane palette with a nuance of character and haptic qualities, satisfying our need for surfaces with integrity.
With this concept, NewTerritory hopes to push a new agenda around the look and feel of future intuitive technology, considering how houses can be further enabled by different implications of devices and materials.
