Rotterdam-based Spazio Viruly is presenting an exhibition titled 'UNBOXING: A Room as Instrument' at Superattico in Milan’s Porta Venezia Design District from April 20th to 26th, 2026. The event is part of Milan Design Week.
Spazio Viruly's installation features the work of designers Matthijs Koerts and Merijn Haenen, who take everyday devices apart to reveal core elements such as energy, tension, light, and sound. The creatives then rebuild those pieces into immersive room-sized environments.
At 'UNBOXING: A Room as Instrument,' visitors can experience how fundamental physical forces are repurposed into spatial art. To enhance the impact of the immersive environment, Spazio Viruly has programmed live dance performances by Eleonora Cattaneo and specially composed soundscapes. In essence, the exhibition sits at the intersection of design, music, movement, and architecture.
Image Credit: Spazio Viruly
Key Themes Behind This Trend
- Room-sized Immersive Instruments
- Large-scale spatial installations that convert physical forces into playable environments suggest new product categories where rooms themselves function as interactive interfaces for creativity and analysis.
- Deconstructed Everyday Devices
- Breaking consumer objects into elemental components points toward modular design systems that repurpose familiar hardware into novel sensory assemblies.
- Multisensory Performance-design Hybrids
- Integrations of choreography, bespoke soundscapes, and spatial design indicate experiences that fuse live performance with engineered environments for layered audience engagement.
Where This Applies
- Exhibition and Museum Design
- Curatorial practices that prioritize immersive, instrument-like rooms imply opportunities for venues to diversify revenue through experiential installations and long-stay interactive exhibits.
- Audio-architecture Integration
- Spatialized sound systems embedded into built environments reveal potential for architectural firms and audio tech companies to co-develop structures where acoustics are integral to function and identity.
- Performing Arts Technology
- Live dance paired with custom soundscapes and reconfigured devices demonstrates a market for technologies that synchronize movement, sound, and environmental feedback in real time.
