Frédéric Tolmatcheff imagined a shutter with large horizontal laths so he got inspired by the well-known toy which looks like the small battens series held by hand and which gives the impression, when the first batten of the top is falling, that the whole board is falling down. From a technical point of view, it was a tough work to achieve for D&ALab.

First of all an electrical motor with a mechanism capable of making a 180° turn was requested in order to incline the first lath. A motor for lorry’s windscreen wiper was found perfectly suitable. The shutter is connected to a computer with an incorporated automatic time-switch, so that the shutter is run when pushing the ringing button. It can also be unexpectedly programmed.

The shutter is made to measure. It is a singular design–object because it is dynamic; it produces sound and possesses a changing outside. A more confined version was showed up for the first time at ART Brussels with a new function – a doorbell.