Amsterdam, Netherlands, July 30: In contrast to conventional furniture which falls towards the earth, Floating Bed falls towards the sky, thanks to a strong magnetic force which overrides gravity, but it does not wipe out your credit card if you fall asleep with your wallet on.
The actual bed costs around 1.2 million euros, but it do esn't exist yet. It's inventor/designer/architect Janjaap Ruissenaars, 34, has created a 1/5-sized prototype model, big enough for cat or dog to sleep on - for 142.000 euros.
The bed has been designed to resemble the Monolith from
Kubrick's movie '2001 A Space Odyssey'.
Ruissenaars explained just how the bed
defies gravity. "In the floor we put magnets and in the bed we put
magnets, so they push each other away. The strength is good
enough to hold it up and even more, so you need four thin
cables from the corners to actually hold it to the ground.
That keeps it from falling upwards, instead of falling
down. That's why this bed is a sort of a reverse of
reality.”
“It's like reality turned upside down, and it's
designed in such a way that magnetic field on the top of
the bed is almost zero. We do that with layering of steel
and plastics and air, and the top of the bed is
user-friendly, you can use your laptop, or bankpass, or
anything you want to use," he said.
The history of architecture and design is to a large
extent embedded in the struggle with gravity. Gravitational
force has been so far a psychological starting point for
all architects constructing. Until now, Ruissenaars'
Floating Bed is the first human artefact that successfully
goes against gravity by virtually permanent magnetic force.
The Floating Bed is held up 40 cm by a permanent
magnetic force due to the use of neodymium (NdFeB) elements
in the floor as well as in the object.
Different possible uses such as a bed, sofa, Japanese
dining table, display for objects or as base for a floating
pavilion can be thought of.
The Floating Bed premiered at Millionaire Fair in
Kortrijk, Belgium in June.
Bureau Report
