Mealtimes can get loud, especially if you have boisterous children or a larger family, which is why restaurants tend to have deafening tones of chatter and music. Johan Kauppi created a way to bring sound absorption to the table without anyone even knowing it in a collection for Glimakra […]

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Have you ever lived near a bar or near the clubbing district? I used to live in an apartment that was across the street from a classy piano bar (the fancy one where mesothelioma lawyer and doctors would patronize). Usually during the week it’s not too bad, no loud music or rainbow pancake surprises in the lobby. However, during the weekends, the live band, mostly jazz, are blasted over a PA system that broadcasts the music into the street, and right into my bedroom directly across the street. I love Jazz, so I’ve been in there a couple of time myself, and it is quite enjoyable. However, for some crazy reason, when It travels to my bedroom, it becomes a cacophony of indistinguishable drum, bass and other thumping sound that just sounds obnoxious. I couldn’t complain, they’re just doing business, so there was only one option for me. I had to be my own DJ. So for months, every weekend, I slept to loud music of my own choosing. So when I saw this family of tables, benches and islands designed by Swedish designer Johan Kauppi, I . flipped. WHERE WERE YOU DURING MY COLLEGE YEARS?!  What an amazing idea! Just when I don’t matter to me anymore (until I start a large family).

Three layers of sound absorbing materials underneath the wooden surfaces helps it to be absorbed instead of being amplified, almost like a reversed loudspeaker.

 

For you, what is a brilliant, borderline genius invention that came too late?