The Rams Wardrobe — Vicente Cruz

A secure wardrobe concept built for smart, urban co-living.

Due to the widespread adoption of shared housing, urban dwellers will be faced with an increase in perceived (and likely, actual) risk of theft of possessions by roommates. This situation would arise from the projections of 2050 for global population increase from today's current trends.

The Rams Wardrobe is a secure wardrobe concept designed to help the future feel a little less uncertain.

In the project's early stages, the product had to solve two main issues: increase available personal space, and reduce actual/perceived risk of theft of possessions. Eventually, it was concluded that, for a variety of reasons, these problems could not be mutually achieved. Therefore, I chose to solve for the safety problem, since:

A lockable wardrobe might replace the utility of not just a closet, but a chest of drawers and other loose storage spaces in a typical bedroom. What non-closet-standard items would a user want to store in it: boots, luxury bags, jewellery, a guitar? To accommodate for this, the design is taller than the average wardrobe.

The wardrobe was heavily inspired by the RT 20 radio designed by Dieter Rams in 1961.

The handle was designed to blend into the facade, while the minimalist form enables a sub-surface fingerprint scanner for intuitive usability, discreet security and instant haptic feedback.

These sorts of fillets would be impossible/unrealistic for shelves manufactured today, however given the 2050 setting of the brief, I figured that reality could be bent a little.

The project process short film features a (rather dramatic) product assembly animation starting at 2:40 — watch on YouTube.

What use is a home that feels unsafe?

Does having a lock necessarily mean that everything needs to be behind it?