Design furniture company Materia has patented its unique noise-free tabletop, Silent Whisper.
A patent of this kind is extremely unusual in the furniture industry, but the Silent Whisper concept is special. We are very happy to now protect it against plagiarism, says Lars Bülow, CEO for the Materia Group.
Materia’s commitment towards designing furniture with new functionality has meant that Silent Whisper has received acclaim from different sources. The patented table top has received the Nordic Swan eco label and previously won the Red Dot Design Award and the ‘Guldsyrsan’ award.
”According to the WHO, noise is the largest working environment problem in Europe today and there is a great need for sound-absorbing products. As a design furniture company, aesthetical values are also important to us, a combination that offers large business opportunities,” says Lars Bülow.
The table top, Silent Whisper, is not just sound-absorbing. It has been designed in a way that it only generates half as much noise as a standard laminate top when, for instance, using glassware or cutlery. This has entailed extensive research. The designer, Sigrid Strömgren, has tested more than 50 combinations of materials to find the optimal solution, when designing the table.
“Properties of materials offering both low noise levels and functionality for public environments are often a contradiction in terms, which is the reason public areas sound the way they do. Fusing these aspects into an effective solution is a challenging balance to strike, which, in my opinion, makes this a field that is very interesting to work in," she says.
Twenty-nine year old Sigrid Strömgren has specialised in noise reduction and was the Swedish designer that attracted most attention at this year’s furniture exhibition, Salone Satellite Milan, in Milan.
”It is quite rare that a designer can come up with such a technical, innovative solution that it results in a patent. And the fact that the designer is not yet 30 years of age is also somewhat unique,” says Lars Bülow.