FRENCH TECH PRODUCTS FOR THE HOME ON THE RISE
Good design, we are often told, solves some problem that we encounter in our everyday lives, relieving us of some discomfort.
When it comes to tech products for the home that make our lives easier and more interesting, France seems to be taking the lead, says Emmanuel Plat, director of merchandising for MoMA Retail at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
“We travel the world,” Plat says. “We go to trade shows, we go to Paris twice a year, we go to London, we go to Milan, we go to Tokyo, we go to Frankfurt, we go to Stockholm, and then we add other cities to that to explore what is happening.
“We started to see more and more things coming from France in the tech area, and we’re saying, well, it cannot just be an accident, something is happening.”
When they dug a little deeper, Plat says, they found there has been a real push in France to support tech startups, with funding through Business France and a public policy initiative called La French Tech.
“There are advantages and benefits for these startups,” he says. “Tax cuts and so forth to basically make their life easier.”
At MoMA design’s La French Tech presentation during NYCxDesign (New York design week) in May, they’re highlighting 20 French tech products that include items for the home like the Vaonis Stellina Smart Telescope by Montpellier’s Ova Design.
“It’s a departure from what you’ll find in the market,” he says. “The way traditionally we use a telescope, you look through the lens, and if you have more than one person looking, you have to take turns.
“With this device, you can have as many people looking at the same time as you like because what you see is going to be visible on a device, whether it’s a phone or tablet or laptop, and then it can be photographed, you can capture that moment and then share it.”
If people want to search for specific galaxies, Plat says, the app that accompanies the telescope allows them to choose which galaxy they’d like to look at, and the telescope will find it.
When they ’re choosing items for the MoMA Design store, Plat says, they always come back to the question: Why MoMA?
“We try to promote good design to as many people as possible,” he says. “And to educate our visitors, and consumers about what’s happening in the design field.”
He says the La French Tech products they ’re including in this latest collection all fit this mandate, such as the retro-looking Triby Smart Speaker by Eliumstudio, which is a “sleek, portable, Wi-Fi speaker that lasts 12 hours before needing recharging and is magnetic so it sticks to surfaces like fridges.”
The Triby is different to other Wi-Fi and Bluetooth speakers out there, Plat says, in that it allows people to control all their home automation services (Apply HomeKit, Alexa, IFTTT) through this device.
“You can basically load your different connected objects you have at home and then control them through this speaker,” Plat says.
One of the items they’re including in the collection, the Xtend Smart Expandable Suitcase, is definitely an example of design solving a problem, Plat says: It expands to become a larger case to allow for people accumulating more than they left home with.
“So you can fly and put it in the cabin, and on the way back you can check it if you need to,” says Plat. “You gain space simply by lifting the handle.” Also included in their upcoming collection is the Veritable Smart Indoor Garden, designed by Chloe Verneuil, which is a bit like the Nespresso of smart gardens, using four “bricks” (made up of soil and seed) for the four different compartments that last four to six months.
“You have these two lights,” Plat says. “If it’s a very bright space, it will not turn on, but if it’s a dark or overcast space, it will turn on this blue light.
“Then it has this water compartment, and when the water needs to be refilled, the light will begin to blink.”