Sensational Wood

Designing intelligence through matter.

Vision

We don't add sensors. We awaken the material.
We design intelligent material systems that connect humans, materials and the environment through responsive, eco-efficient interactions.
We bridge design research and material science to build the next generation of interfaces: objects that awaken the senses and invite us to rethink our relationship with technology and the environment.

Objects

Where it started: Four objects, developed in Simon Litschi's Master's thesis at HSLU Design Film Kunst, in collaboration with the Wood Materials Science Group at ETH Zürich. Each lets the wood itself become the interface.

Where it goes: With the support of Pro Helvetia, the Gebert Rüf Stiftung and the Albert Koechlin Stiftung, the four prototypes now become an applied practice: scalable Products, small-series Objects and site-specific Installations.

Touching Light

wooden light interface

Run your hand along a wooden surface and watch the light in the room shift: brighter, darker, warmer, cooler. The technology stays inside the material, so the surface remains wood you can touch.

We are developing our first product: Lichtschmeichler, a light control made of solid wood for smart home lighting. Supported by Gebert Rüf Stiftung (First Ventures) and Albert Koechlin Stiftung.

The same principle works on any wooden surface and can control sound, shading or temperature. We also take on site-specific installations for architecture and interiors and are looking for the first projects. If you have one, talk to us

Awakening Sound

wooden electronic instruments

Touch a wooden surface and awaken the sound of a violin or another instrument: you hear it and feel it vibrate under your hands, its tone shifting and deepening as your hand strokes across the grain.

We want to make creating music more intuitive. No training needed for your first sound, yet enough expressive depth to keep unfolding with years of practice. The warmth and texture of wood, combined with the range of electronic music production.

Applications reach from electronic music production and live performance to music therapy, music education, and inclusive instruments where sound is felt as much as heard.

Functional prototypes, co-created with musicians, are in active development, supported by Pro Helvetia (Emerging Talents).

Holding Scent

interactive scent diffusor

As you approach the object, a soft light begins to glow and a forest scent rises quietly from the wood. No button, no screen, just wood that notices you before you touch it.

Held in two hands, it asks to be cupped rather than operated, offering a moment of stillness and reflection. Scent is the one sense no screen can reach, and the one that carries memory furthest.

Hearing Space

spatial veneer speaker

A curved veneer body stands in the room, releasing subtle layers of sound. Move around it, or place your head inside the loop, and the sound becomes a space you can enter. Breathe onto the wooden base and the soundscape awakens, composed by Maria Honegger (Atelier Monodon). An invitation to rethink how we experience sound, and how we interact with technology.

Innovation

A perspective
We look beyond artificial intelligence and learn from the intelligences of the natural world. We design technology that brings consciousness and the whole body back into interaction, more than a fingertip on glass.

A practice
We design and program interactions that resonate: gestures, rhythms and responses shaped by how humans naturally engage with materials, touching, sliding, holding, embracing.

A process
Through IC-LIG, a process developed by the Wood Materials Science Group at ETH Zürich, wood becomes conductive and sensitive to touch from within: no films, no glass, no plastics on the surface. IC-LIG is the foundation of our first four objects. Today we combine it with microcontrollers and sensing systems. The wood stays wood and becomes the sensor.

Team

Dr. Christopher Dreimol (left)
Simon Yves Litschi (right)