Barber Osgerby creates ‘living space’ for Sony at Milan fair

Barber Osgerby is working with Sony to articulate the electronics company’s design approach through an ‘experimental living space’ at this year’s Milan furniture fair.

The consultancy was approached by Sony last summer. Director Jay Osgerby says Sony told Barber Osgerby it wanted to ‘put desire into people’s lives’, in the way the Sony Walkman did.

Barber Osgerby decided to create a ‘noiseless space’ in which to showcase a series of experiments ‘showing that Sony is design-oriented, but backed up by technology and research’, according to Osgerby.

The space (concept pictured) will not display products, but will convey what Sony calls ‘human-centric design essence, symbolised through lifestyle-focused concepts’.

Taking its cue from the technology in Sony’s Monolithic Television – which has a screen with no buttons or framing, and doesn’t make any background noise – Barber Osgerby will make an anechoic chamber, a shielded room designed to attenuate sound.

Inside the space, a series of light and sound installations will be explored through acoustic design structures.

‘It’s a metaphor for the technology, a noiseless space with all the superfluous [elements] removed,’ says Osgerby, who adds that it will not showcase formed Sony products, but it is ‘deliberately experimental’, showing ‘how technology might be used in the future’, and how materials could be manipulated differently.

The Milan furniture fair runs from 14-19 April.