STYLE TILES
CARL HANSEN & SØN x AKQA

An interactive in-store configuration surface using RFID-tagged physical material tiles — place an upholstery and wood combination on the surface, and the chair renders in real time on a large display. A QR code exports the configuration so customers can view their chosen chair at home via AR, IKEA-style. Eduardo led the technical direction, proof of concept, and hardware engineering. The prototype won Carl Hansen & Søn as a client, though the project was not realised in production.

OVERVIEW _

The Style Tiles concept addresses a real retail problem: furniture is expensive, customisable, and hard to commit to from a swatch card. The solution puts the configuration process in the customer's hands physically — real material tiles, real textures — while the display shows the result in real time. Pick an upholstery, pick a wood finish, set them on the surface together, and the chair updates instantly.

The extension into the home was the more ambitious part. A QR code generated from the configured combination allows the customer to scan and download a 3D model of their chair, then place it in their own living room via mobile AR — the same principle as IKEA's AR app, but starting from an in-store physical interaction with the actual materials.

Eduardo led the technical direction, proof of concept, and hardware engineering — covering the RFID tag and reader system, real-time 3D rendering pipeline, QR-to-AR handoff, and the mobile AR viewer. The concept won Carl Hansen & Søn as a client; the project was not ultimately realised, but the prototype was technically complete and demonstrated the full experience end-to-end. The technical framework developed here went on to underpin subsequent phygital retail concepts.

TECHNOLOGY _

RFID-tagged physical tiles, real-time 3D rendering (large in-store display), QR code generation, mobile AR (3D model viewer), hardware (RFID reader, embedded system)

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