The Tranquility Pod — which looks like a mashup between a Henrik Thor-Larsen chair and a giant Mentos candy — is more than just another piece of pricey retro-futuristic furniture. Crawl through that inviting opening, and you’ll find yourself floating atop a six-foot-wide octagonal waterbed, encircled by soft LED mood lighting, and engulfed by sound waves from an 80-watt audio system. Once inside, you may never want to leave.
Suede-topped, memory foam-covered, and temperature-controlled, the waterbed is luxurious enough. Never mind that you can pipe in music from your smartphone through the four-speaker sound system. There’s also a subwoofer in the bottom that vibrates the bed so the sound waves resonate through your body like a musical massage. You can probably spend many, many hours tweaking your playlist to find the sequence of tunes that produces the best vibrations.
Did I mention the pulse sensor? Yes, more over-the-top awesomeness. The 50 LEDs lining the pod’s insides actually synchronize with your heart rate to create an ambient lighting motif that best suits your temperament. Imagine having the lights automatically dim as all that soft suede and musical vibrating lulls you to sleep (Philips should probably steal this idea for its Hue bulbs).
The Tranquility Pod is almost 80 inches in diameter, which means it’s going to take up most of your apartment if you live in New York or San Francisco. But since it costs $30,000, I’ll assume that if you’re in the market, you live in a space big enough to accomodate a giant fiberglass waterbed. It’s sold in the U.S. by retailer Hammacher Schlemmer, so if the price seems a tad steep, keep in mind that you can bundle it into the same order as your $60,000 Bowers & Wilkins speakers and your $15,000 German Flakfernrohr and maybe save a little bit on shipping.
