Transformable Sofa on Review at Platform 28

Platform 28, an art organization based in Tehran, has opened an exhibition to review the design of a unique piece of modern furniture.

The exhibit is titled ‘Lift-Bit,’ after the featured product. ‘Lift-Bit’ is said to be the world’s first ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) sofa, meaning its modules can be inter-networked to form various upholstered seats. The IoT is the interconnection via the Internet of computing devices embedded in everyday objects, enabling them to send and receive data. The exhibition is meant to showcase what the furniture can do.

A platform for art, architecture and design, Platform 28 has focused on the characteristics of the Information Age (a period in human history characterized by the shift from traditional industry that the Industrial Revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy based on information computerization), particularly on the processes of design and production in its latest exhibit, ISNA reported.

The international design and innovation studio Carlo Ratti Associati, headquartered in Torino, Italy, with offices in Boston and London, has presented Lift-Bit, the world’s first digitally-transformable sofa.

The project, realized with the support of Swiss family-owned furniture company Vitra, consists of a modular, reconfigurable upholstered seat which employs the Internet-of-Things technology to radically define a new living experience.

The prototype of Lift-Bit stems from the combination of a series of single, hexagonal stools. Each of them is motorized using a linear actuator which allows every element to be raised or lowered.

Controlled remotely through a tablet app, each stool can double or halve its height in just a few seconds, reconfiguring the space in a myriad of combinations. Lift-Bit’s responsive modules can seamlessly transform into a sofa, a bed, an ordered living room, a small auditorium, or a domestic landscape, according to the user’s needs and wishes.

With the opening on April 7 at Platform 28, located at No. 28, Khaghani Street, Enqelab Avenue, the event will run through April 14.