Boston Gets Smart Furniture

Boston will soon be getting some of the more tech-savvy city parks furniture in the country, and it points to an overall design trend of trying to maximize technology in a non-invasive fashion throughout public space. This particular iteration, dubbed “Soofas,” are solar-powered benches that will charge cellphones, and will also disseminate noise levels, temperature, air pollution data, and more through a dedicated dashboard. As smart, urban furniture becomes more and more disseminated throughout urban spaces, expect the quantification of self and data-based metrics to continue to rise, offering more nuanced situations for marketers and advertisers to target.