Challenges in modern life
Our challenges in modern life | Why the quality of a space is worth designing for
Modern life is fast, mostly indoors, and full of things competing for attention. You already know that, and we are not going to spend a page telling you about it.
The part worth talking about is narrower, and it is about buildings.
The part that gets left over
We spend most of our lives inside. Homes, offices, cars, schools, gyms, restaurants, hotels. All of it built, specified, costed and signed off by someone.
Those buildings are optimised for the things that can be drawn and measured. Area. Load. Thermal performance. Acoustic ratings. Air changes per hour. Cost per square metre. All of it necessary and all of it real.
Light has a designer. Acoustics has a consultant. Air has an engineer, a calculation and a compliance threshold. Structure has a stamp on it. How the room comes together has nobody: no drawing, no line item, no sign-off, no one whose name is against it. It is the one part of a building assumed to look after itself, and usually the first thing a visitor notices.
It has also got harder. Buildings are tighter and better sealed than they were. More equipment per square metre, more services in the ceiling, more devices on every circuit. Each of those is an improvement on its own terms. Together they make a room that is more controlled, and less varied, than anything people lived in before.
What we are not going to tell you
There is a version of this argument that says modern environments are making you ill. We are not making it.
We do not know that, we could not support it, and we would rather be useful than alarming. magma13 is not a health product and we are not selling you a threat.
What we will say is narrower and easier to check. The difference between a room that works and one that does not is something many people register without putting it into words, and it appears on no drawing
What we mean by well-being
Personal well-being within an environment. The quality of a space, real and perceived, the comfort of being in it, and whether it holds up over time.
It is about the room, not about the person in it, and that distinction runs through everything on this site.
Where magma13 fits
magma13 works on the part that gets left over. It is a passive ambient technology built on MGA-FCR, our own framework, currently under experimental validation, and it is designed to contribute to spaces perceived as more coherent, calmer and more balanced.
It does not replace ventilation, ergonomics, acoustics, daylight design, medical care or sensible habits. It is one layer, added to a building that has already been done properly, and it works on the part nobody else was specifying.
Where magma13 fits
If environments shape experience, they can be designed with more care than they currently get. That is the whole argument, and it is why SOLS exists.
magma13 is not a medical device. It is not intended to diagnose, prevent, treat or cure any disease and is intended solely for personal well-being within an environment. The technical information given here does not constitute therapeutic, preventive or diagnostic claims. magma13 should not be used as a substitute for medical treatment, devices or procedures.