Sound + Spatial Brand Storytelling | StudioXAG

We all know smell gets the glory. The memory trigger. The time machine. The perfume portal. These days, no self-respecting experience is complete without a carefully curated olfactory element.

But what about sound?

It’s the sense we often overlook, yet one our bodies feel most viscerally. Play your favourite track and the hairs on your neck rise. Play the wrong one and cortisol spikes. Sound heightens stress, modulates mood, alters behaviour.

Now, brands are listening. Sonic installations are on the rise. Not as background noise, but as the lead instrument.

Sustainable Soundscapes

All stores have a soundtrack. For better or worse, it’s the easiest way to diffuse sound and a sense of pace into a space. SUNNEI’s new store in Milan takes this idea and gives it a modern, sustainable twist.

The 150-square-metre location brings together a store, café and gallery inside the brand’s Milanese headquarters. Designed by architecture studio 2050+, the interior reflects the brand’s stripped-back sensibility and focus on materials.

SUNNEI’s commitment to sustainability also runs deep. From collaborations using Econyl® yarn to public projects like Bianco SUNNEI, which transformed an outdoor space into a gallery and regenerative event venue.

That thinking extends to sound. Inside the store, a handcrafted, mycelium-insulated speaker system by bio-design studio Mycoaudio enriches the sonic landscape. As shoppers browse, the curated soundscapes of Radio SUNNEI bridge the visual and the audial, creating a low-impact, high-attention atmosphere that feels wholly of the brand.

Physical Playlists

Making sound tactile can prompt people to pause, pocket their phones and properly engage with a space. Harry Nuriev of Crosby Studios explores this idea by transforming a store into a physical playlist, where visitors pick up a CD, tune into a track and tap back into the lost ritual of listening front to back.

To mark the 25th anniversary of Telekom Electronic Beats, Berlin concept store 032c hosted ‘All is Sound. All is Transformation’, a pop-up installation by Nuriev that plays with the materiality of music.

At its centre sits a stainless steel structure stacked with sequentially arranged CDs, referencing both the now-obsolete format and the spaces where music was once physically discovered. A CD player and repurposed car speakers activate the installation as a listening station.

Immersive Frequencies

Some brands are going further, materialising sound in new, sensory-stimulating ways.

During Milan Design Week 2025, Vans transformed the Triennale Milano into an immersive portal where invisible elements took physical form.

The installation, Checkered Future, was conceived by creative director Willo Perron with sonic textures by experimental musician Tim Hecker. Together, they explored the architecture of sound, presenting frequencies, waves and vibrations as visual, spatial and tangible phenomena.

Visitors reclined on a vast metal perch, immersed in a harsh, high-sensation environment. Moving mirrors distorted spatial perception. Light collided with the body. Sound hovered, pulsed and pressed in.

“It’s a meditation on sound and space,” said Perron. The project began with the idea that Vans’ checkered design was inspired by sound waves. The first concept translated those waveforms into visual pattern. The second took that pattern and stretched it across the installation, from two-dimensional graphic to full-bodied architecture.

Listening Spaces

Elsewhere at Milan’s Triennale, sound plays a very different role.

Voce is a new permanent space dedicated to exploring sound as a spatial and architectural element.

Conceived by architect Luca Cipelletti as a “cathedral of sound,” the 330-square-metre room is a minimalist, image-free environment designed for focused listening. Industrial designer Philippe Malouin’s green modular furniture makes the space flexible and acoustically responsive. The chairs can be reconfigured into elongated seating and help shape how sound moves through the room.

At its core, the project treats sound as structure, a force that defines experience, perception and use. Materials are selected for their acoustic behaviour and spatial neutrality. With all visual stimuli removed, attention shifts to the intangible. Sound becomes the focal point.

What does this mean for brands?

1. Think of the planet
Sound systems don’t need to rely on plastic-heavy tech. Explore bio-based materials and low-impact innovations that reflect your values as much as your pursuit of sound quality.

2. Celebrate the physical
In a digital-heavy world, tactile sound is a wonder. Whether it’s a sculptural speaker or a physical playlist, consider how sound can become something people hold as well as hear.

3. Design with sound
Treat sound like light or material. Think about how it moves through space, how it shapes behaviour and how it can become a lead element rather than just background noise.

4. Turn down the volume
Not every experience needs to shout. Silence, resonance and vibration are powerful tools. Design spaces where people don’t just hear sound, they tune in.

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