Who morphed my armchair?

Jun 28, 2025

The next section of the city’s biggest furniturals store is dotted with perpetually flipping signs. Up to 87% more living space with multi-state furniture. The bistables showroom buzzes with people trying out affordable shape-shifting pieces.

- Maybe we could just furnish on a budget and upgrade to a nicer system once we’re better off?

He pushes the dark wood until it snaps from a low coffee table to dining height with a satisfying thunk.

- You want our apartment furnished with oversized snap bracelets?

She points at a colourful chair teasing.

- Hey, even your jokes might finally snap into shape if you sit on this one long enough.

While he plays with simple displays, she immediately gravitates towards every holo, playing their home on each interactive demo she can find. Sensing their waning interest, the store gently pulses guiding arrows beneath their feet toward the next section.

The modulore section shows life-size apartments gently flowing from one scene into the next. A quiet home office turns into a cozy yoga nook, which then elegantly shifts into a lively dinner party setup, each transformation unfolding fluidly within half a minute.

My kids build new forts every week. Cleanup takes five minutes, everything just clicks back to baseline. The parent in the projection looks genuinely relaxed. Her pace accelerates.

- Living in a set of building blocks? No thank you.

The morphiture section feels more like entering the gallery showcasing a conductor's dream, furniture that anticipates needs without intruding. A workspace clears itself as someone approaches with coffee, and reforms when they seat. A living room optimises for the number of people present, expanding conversation circles, adjusting acoustic properties.

His voice mocks an older person.

- Who morphed my armchair? I asked you youngsters not to touch it.

- Oh wow, look over there!

- What is it?

- That’s the morphing dining table. It hangs like a softly glowing lamp beneath the ceiling until activated. When you turn it on, the material changes its properties and transforms into a solid structure that you can sit around. You can even buy more material to make it fit more people.

- This is very impressive, but it’s far beyond our budget. Maybe if my skingestible startup becomes an overnight sensation.

- I’m more concerned about trusting the furniture to hold its form.

- Meaning?

- I would hate it if we switched mid-dinner.

- Ha, we could serve this trick for your parents’ first visit. That would be a sight.

She points at the demo.

- It says here that you won’t switch if detecting any pressure. You won't entertain our guests by splattering the dinner all over the ceiling.

- I’m so happy we don’t have space for that.

- Tiny is the price you pay for living in the centre.

Her enthusiasm wanes. She shakes her head skeptically.

- Hmm. Right? The bed that gets less comfortable after the alarm? Not for me. It’s a pass.

- I like the general idea thou. For dumb things, the form follows function. For morphings the only thing is function, and the form is optional.

- Can we decide on the base and save the design philosophy for dinner?

- Do you know that the average male can survive for months without proper furniture?

- What’s your point?

- It’s all for show. We could live in a box or a barrel and be happy.

- So you’re telling me that buying furniture is a mating strategy?

- What isn’t? I prefer to sit, sleep and work on a dumb piece of plastic or fake wood. As long as the coffee machine keeps working, I'm good.

- Don’t behave like I’m only moving in to appreciate your coffee routine.

- What can I do? My coffee game is strong.

She mock-threatens him with a pillow. He raises his hands in surrender, grinning sheepishly.

- Ok, ok. I’m sorry.

As they continue to the next one, it feels a little like entering a greenhouse. The bio-responsive section demos showcase furniture that literally grows, wood fibers intertwining with coral matrices and mycelium networks in real-time. Growing with your lifestyle. He runs his hand over the swelling mycelium desk, marked with growth timestamps appearing like comments on a slow-motion livestream.

- At least this feels organic. I can work with something that breathes.

- I wonder if it’s still furniture with biophilic sensors or just highly functional plants.

- Yeah. Imagine starting work on a humid day, and suddenly you notice that your workspace looks different because the desk is feeding on moisture.

- Why?

- The mycelium grows more actively when it's damp.

He smiles as a thought passes his face.

- We could call it Deskar.

- Would you apologise to Deskar if you spilt coffee on it?

- It's alive! It deserves politeness! You know? Let's give it a try.

- You suddenly want to live back in the woods?

- Only if the woods are in the city centre.

- You know what? Let's start small, maybe bistable basics, and one nice bio-responsive piece. Everything can grow, and upgrade with us.

- Mix and match?

- They're all designed to play nice together. Look.

Subscription models float near each demo, own, lease, or experience tiers. He points to a compatibility matrix that looks more like a friendship chart than a technical diagram.

- Deal. But I'm still naming it Deskar.

She rolls her eyes affectionately looping her arm through his as they step towards the cafeteria.

- Of course you are.

Memories to build from this future:

1. Think back to the dinner party where your morphing furniture helped create an unforgettable evening:

- What spontaneous transformation happened that made everyone gasp with delight?
- Which guest was initially skeptical but ended up ordering the same system?
- How did your space anticipate and enhance the natural flow of conversation?
- What moment made you realize your home had become a better host than you?

2. Try to recall when your company transitioned from owning office furniture to subscribing to adaptive workspaces:

- What metric convinced leadership that morphing furniture improved productivity?
- Which department resisted the change most strongly and why?
- How did you handle the employee who kept "saving" their preferred desk configuration?
- What unexpected cultural shift happened once people stopped having "their" desks?

3. Picture once again that breakthrough session where morphing furniture unlocked your team's creative potential:

- What configuration did the space discover that none of you had thought to request?
- How did the ability to instantly prototype different layouts accelerate decision-making?
- Which team member flourished once they found their ideal working environment?
- What innovation came from that session that is still driving revenue today?