When a traditional furnishing element is rethought as an architectural system, the line between function and design grows thin. I watch with interest cases where a seemingly simple object, the curtain, becomes a tool for organising space and acoustic comfort, without losing its textile nature.
Waves, developed by Kvadrat Acoustics in collaboration with Foster + Partners Industrial Design, rethinks the curtain as a genuine architectural component. The system was created to shape soft, adaptable acoustic zones inside open-plan interiors, without relying on fixed walls. Its multilayer construction, made of an external technical fabric and one or two sound-absorbing inner cores, integrates a patented system of tapes and hooks arranged in a regular rhythm: the result is a wave-like drape that reduces friction between the layers and becomes part of the product’s aesthetic language, not only its function. Technical performance, with sound transmission loss of up to 15 decibels and noise reduction reaching 70 percent, allows private work areas to be carved out inside shared offices, more contained meeting rooms, or hospitality spaces able to adapt to different uses within the same day. The design logic moves past the strict separation between textile furnishing and architecture: flexibility becomes a design value in its own right, answering a growing need in contemporary workplaces to reshape space in real time, without permanent structural intervention.
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