DEUTSCHE TELEKOM LEADS TO THE DISCOVERY OF DIGITAL LIFESTYLE

A concept made by the virtuous union of design and technology that reflects us and is highly functional, where technology is not visible, but ‚feels‘ our presence at home and helps us in the thousand situations that make up a day, from work to study to cooking and relaxing.

STAYING AT HOME IS THE NEW GOING OUT

The home plays a central role in Deutsche Telekom‘s Digital Lifestyle. In the Fall of 2019, the Deutsche Telekom’s Design Team got out of a long research in four countries, prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, that “Staying at home is the new going out”. Yet even if now all we wish to do is leave our homes, what Deutsche Telekom‘s designers figured out working with anthropologists, psychologists and behavioral scientists was a revelation.

Because what people were telling them was that homes mattered more than ever and in ways that require a greater deal of design thinking when it comes to technology. These trends informed Digital Lifestyle and the scenarios imagined creating a digital experience that was supposed to go live during Milan Design Week (later cancelled due to Covid-19).

By building bridges with technology experts and software developers, design is the discipline that can turn these insights into scenarios that are not only technologically possible but also humanly preferable.

For its Digital Lifestyle project, the Deutsche Telekom Team decided to focus on suggesting solutions that are all very feasible using today’s available technologies and that do not often occur only because there is a fault of communication between those who design the spaces and the furniture and those who design the technological experiences. All these scenarios can thus become true simply by creating an interdisciplinary communication network between different fields of expertise.

ON STAGE AT FUORISALONE DIGITAL FROM MONDAY 15 JUNE

Deutsche Telekom‘s Digital lifestyle will be presented to the public on the occasion of Fuorisalone Digital, the event from 15 to 21 June 2020 that will stage the world of design, born as an alternative to Milan Design Week, stopped for the Covid-19 emergency.

DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY, A UNION TO BE IMPROVED

Monica Dalla Riva, Vice President Customer Experience Design of Deutsche Telekom, says: “Digital Lifestyle, for Deutsche Telekom, is the perfect integration of digital with the analog component of our lives. This integration has not yet been completed, as shown by the lockdown we have been forced by the Covid-19 pandemic. These days, we have noticed that we live in houses full of cables, where it can happen to lose the connection to the web because the router has not been positioned in the most functional place. In our homes we still struggle to find the most suitable spaces for needs that can change with time or, as we have just seen, suddenly. In this sense, digital is the solution to bring more functionality and aesthetics to our homes, even more poetry. We want to dialogue with the furniture supply chain to achieve that integration between digital and furniture industry that has not yet been completed and which, we believe, can be perfected within the next five years. In our vision, technology is invisible and integrated into household objects, from household appliances to furniture. Tomorrow‘s house is like yesterday‘s: in the second there was no technology, in the first there is but you cannot see it, it is seamless”.

THE EXHIBITION BY CALVI BRAMBILLA

Deutsche Telekom invited Milan-based design and architecture studio Calvi Brambilla to interpret the Digital Lifestyle vision and translate this into a virtual design exhibition. »Deutsche Telekom asked us to interpret a series of extraordinary experiences that have been developed in the Bonn research and development department. These technologies are aimed at making people’s interaction with the objects that populate the house more fluid and that will soon become connected online. We have therefore outlined three interactive scenarios that exploit some of these technologies and intuitively show their use, leaving a space for the imagination to unprecedented applications. Our project maintains a certain degree of abstraction precisely because it would be an act of arrogance to try and plan people‘s lives, on the contrary it is necessary to leave personal creativity to express itself freely, so that technology is at the service of people and not vice versa” say Fabio Calvi and Paolo Brambilla, co-founders of Calvi Brambilla.

WHY MILAN

Deutsche Telekom had chosen Milan Design Week to stage its Digital Lifestyle because the Milanese exhibition is the ideal setting to meet the community of designers, interiors and, in a broad sense, the protagonists of the project, creating exchanges and synergies which can help technology to become increasingly integrated and human. The same drive to dialogue with the world of the project animates a visionary, exploratory, circular space, the Design Gallery in Bonn that aims to inspire employees and visitors of their infinite ideas on the fully connected future. With recreating scenarios and real products, the design gallery envisions an ecosystem of our daily lives, from our smart home to our city and even specific work and retail environments.

THE TRENDS:

Trend #1 Homedulgance

Even prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, people were staying at home more than they ever did before. Some say that “Staying at home has become the new going out”. This – researchers found out – was due to the growth of new domestic forms of entertainment and services, such as home-delivered gourmet meals and streaming services with user-friendly interfaces and a limitless variety of content choices, that have turned even the most modest homes into vibrant places where exciting, shareable and highly self-indulgent moments routinely occur. This is translated into a growing desire to turn one‘s home into a place rich in leisure and opportunities for a tailor-made, enjoyable time. A trend that – post-pandemic– is only likely to increase.

Trend #2 Soft Digital

A new desire to see is electronics as cozy extensions of our environment is emerging. Since technology is commonplace in the domestic environment, it should go unnoticed, serving only to convey a feeling of order and calm. This is translated into a growing desire for home devices that are softer in their appearance and in a bigger focus on physical engagement, bringing a greater sense of calm and peace to domestic spaces.

Trend #3 eSports as Game Changer

Videogames are no longer what they used to be. The kids who grew up with the PlayStation or the xBox now have kids themselves and they love to play together. Over the past twenty years, video games, through handheld and portable devices, have become a major source of entertainment. Furthermore, eSports are bridging online and real-life communities and offer truly immersive and emotional experiences. On one hand these are physical gatherings, with fans congregating as actual spectators in large locations. On the other, these massive events are also virtual. Recently, videogame platforms have even been turned into stages for music events. This is translated into a growing desire for sharable experience rooms, places where the whole family can gather to enjoy videogaming (or video-chatting, as the recent quarantine teaches).