Based in Stockholm and holding a master’s degree in Industrial Design from Lund University, freelance multidisciplinary designer Sofie Aschan supports her clients in navigating the simple, everyday and complex challenges that individuals, society and the planet are facing. Through her proposed initiative Disguised Realities, which allows users to apply diminished and augmented reality technology to their living spaces, remote workers could ‘clean up’ their living spaces for a day on the job.

In the lead-up to each issue, we challenge emerging designers to respond to the Frame Lab theme with a forward-looking concept. What makes a home responsive? Its ability to morph in a moment, its seamless integration of new technologies, or how well it connects to the world around us? And how far can we push the responsive home in the future? We asked three creative practices to share their ideas.

Sofie Aschan.

What were your first thoughts when answering this Challenge?

SOFIE ASCHAN: What makes a home? Is it authenticity, your belongings, or a place to feel safe and calm? While our original homes were designed as places to relax and recharge, our future homes have, due to the pandemic and the much-appreciated hybrid work model, an additional role – to cater for performance and focus.

Creating a well-functioning home office can be quite hard when it’s impossible to enlarge the space itself. Since many of us don’t have enough room to dedicate a space just to working, the office is instead shoved into a corner of the living room – an open area shared with other people, objects and functions. There’s a great amount of visual clutter attached to not being in a carefully furnished office space. Suddenly everything seems to call for attention.

How do you propose to solve this issue?

What if we could temporary ‘clean’ the space using digital technology? Diminished reality (DR) – which is basically augmented reality (AR) in reverse – inspired this future scenario. Where AR adds layers of information to your field of view, DR removes things. This makes it possible to temporarily hide unwanted distractions from view, deceiving the brain into believing that everything looks neat and tidy so you can focus on the work task at hand.

You’ve called your concept Disguised Realities. How would it work in practice?

You’d start by scanning the space with smart glasses or lenses when it looks neat. Imagine that it looks chaotic the next day, but you have a tight deadline and really need to ignore the mess for now. You’d put on your glasses, which would detect objects that are out of the ordinary, remove them from your sight in real time, and make your view look picture-perfect so you can relax. 

There are tonnes of possibilities here. By adding an AR layer, you could ‘dress’ your living room in an office costume during work hours, with carefully selected interior pieces – furniture, for instance, and potentially metaverse art on subscription – that inspire you or help you focus. This mode would make you feel as if you’re physically in another place during office hours, not at home.

What do you think are the wider implications of Disguised Realities?

Most often, digital futures present a point of friction, but if used wisely and in the right context, they can really enhance our experiences. Scenarios like Disguised Realities set the stage for new business models and design opportunities, and generate an even stronger link between physical and digital worlds in our everyday lives. For better or worse? It’s up for discussion.