A proof of concept of the flexible furniture wall, which is a joint innovation project between Bruynzeel, Tengbom and OBOS, was installed in one of OBOS’ smallest apartments in Sweden.

The test period

During the spring of 2021, people around Trollhättan, Sweden had the opportunity to apply and test the flexible furniture wall in one of OBOS’ apartments. The participants got to try the flexible furniture wall overnight. To fully use the flexible wall and to test and try all the features.

More spacious apartment

91% perceived the apartment as more spacious thanks to the addition of the flexible furniture wall. "It is striking just how few square meters need to be added to a room to make a room feel more spacious.” – anonymous. "At the moment I am living in a small apartment, it is about the same size as this apartment. But this apartment feels much larger.” – John Andersson, Architecture student

Using the flexible furniture wall

Before arriving to the apartment the participants received a welcome letter with an instruction video of the flexible furniture wall, which is operated both by a remote control and a user interface.

• 36% found it very easy to start using the flexible wall.
• 36% found it difficult to start using the wall.
  
  To protect the users, one of the safety features prevented the wall from moving when the bed was not completely folded down or up. The error displayed was not sufficiently clear to explain what was happening.

Improvements

As this was a demo, we received a lot of good ideas on ways to improve the flexible furniture wall. The suggestions covered various aspects, from the design to functional improvements. Suggestions included optimizing the placement of the lamp button, using dimmable lights, improving the bed legs, incorporating a remote control in the user interface, and improving the bed folding mechanism, among others.