The Technology
A worktop. A set of objects — cubes, discs, blocks — wrapped in the material the brand wants to tell: from textiles to stone, leather to wood, all the way to ceramic finishes. Each object embeds an NFC tag that uniquely identifies it. The visitor picks one up, places it on a marked zone of the table, and a 3D scene — on a LED wall, screen, or projection — responds in real time: a surface swaps material, a variant activates, a detail reveals itself.
Touch returns to the center of the process. Technology stays invisible.
The Case: C&C Milano @ Milan Design Week 2026
For The Tactile Atelier by C&C Milano at Superstudio Più we built an NFC table with cubes wrapped in the atelier's fabrics. Visitors placed a cube on wall, sofa, drapery, or cushion, and the Via Brera 7 apartment — rebuilt as a photorealistic 3D rendering on the LED wall behind them — transformed instantly.
Who it's for
Material brands (fabrics, finishes, leathers, woods, ceramics, paints) that need to show combinations and real applications instead of flat sample books. Permanent showrooms where a phygital configurator replaces repetitive sales walkthroughs. Trade show booths looking for a memorable, photographable activation. Museums and exhibitions where a physical object should open digital layers of depth. Product launches where configuration is the message.
What we ship
The table is productized and repeatable. Each new project only requires:
- design of the physical tokens (shape, finish, brand materials)
- material/surface mapping and configuration logic
- 3D scene of the environment (showroom, product, context)
- output choice (LED wall, screen, projection)
Everything else — NFC electronics, runtime application, interaction framework, rendering integration — is our core. The time between placing the cube and the swap on the LED wall stays under 50 milliseconds: instant to the eye. The runtime needs no internet connection, and the rig sets up within a day.
Why it works
Tangible interaction beats the screen: no interface to learn, immediate feedback, multiple people can compose together. The visitor touches the material before seeing it applied, and that shifts the quality of the perceived experience — it's not a demo, it's a design act. Instant response and real-time lighting do the rest: the fabric on the cube and the fabric on the LED wall feel like the same object.
Contact us
Have a material brand, a showroom, a trade show, or a product launch where touch should drive the digital? Tell us about the project.
