Niels, Design for life

Royal Academy of Art with ‘Royal Dutcheese’ for the first time at Salone del Mobile

Self-assured, researching designers of the bachelor studies Furniture Design and Textile and Fashion of the Royal Academy of Art (KABK), melting pot of the creative city The Hague (the Netherlands), present themselves in a very special way at Salone del Mobile in Milan. From Tuesday 15 through Monday April 21 visitors can admire among other things an exhibition of the Royal Dutcheese through an Augmented Reality (AR) headset. This complete innovative way of showing furniture and textile will be set in operation at the former cheese factory at Custodi 6, a brand new location during Salone del Mobile in Tortona.

Students of the KABK have to be fully prepared to operate in an international professional practice when they graduate. They can reach this goal only by absolute mastery of the domain, a truly experimental attitude and a strict individual contribution to their discipline and society in general. Salone del Mobile in Milan is a tremendous opportunity for our Young designers to make a statement and show their position in the design world. At the KABK the students of Furniture Design and Textile and Fashion are deliberately confronted with the past, present and future. At Textile and Fashion a lot of research is done to the history of costume and folklore while a concept is developing. The success of any creative work depends not only on the ability to generate good ideas, but also on the skills for developing, managing and presenting those ideas to others. This opportunity will expose different techniques for developing ideas and apply them in pitching ideas. Interior Design focuses on processing of historic furniture in the student’s design. Not hindered by borders students are encouraged to look for innovative forms, new colour combinations and editing of developing new fabrics.

Innovative way of showing furniture and textile In the exhibition at Salone del Mobile the environment plays an important role in development and processing of materials and form. The KABK focuses on innovation, experiment, improvisation, analysis, reflection and understanding. The Academy will use a complete innovative way of showing furniture and textile by using an Augmented Reality headset and present the objects virtually in a real environment. Therefore is, besides an exhibition of furniture and textile, chosen for a virtual presentation by AR+RFID Lab. Therefore the Academy comes up with an exposition of furniture and textile and a virtual exposition, to be seen by wearing the AR headset, or follow the scene on beamers. At Salone del Mobile visitors can look via the optical see-through head-mounted AR set at the virtual furniture and textile designs integrated into the real world. With the mobile equipment (backpack) the visitor can walk around the designs of the students. RFID (radio-frequency identification) is a system of tags and a responder, the tag that is normally used to trace goods. But now and here it’s being used to trigger virtual events. RFID is used to let real world objects influence the virtual world.

AR+RFID Lab headset, Student industrial Design - Niels Mulder