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Just when you thought life couldn’t get any more ‘Black Mirror’, here comes a surreal glimpse of your next summer holiday: whenever you finally get to go to the beach, you might have to book a spot inside an actual glass box.
At least, that’s what one Italian company is predicting. It’s just released designs for ‘sunbathing boxes’ that could be lined up along sandy beaches to help ensure social distancing.
Measuring 15 by 15 feet, the transparent plexiglass boxes were designed by manufacturer NuovaNeon Group 2 – speculatively – for a beach on the Riviera Romagnola in north-east Italy. The company has also devised an array of less obtrusive barriers to sit between sun loungers and parasols. Whether or not any of them will actually be built, the firm says the designs have already generated a lot of interest from Italian beach authorities. After all, can’t you see yourself kicking back with a mojito in one of these?
Photograph: NuovaNeon Group 2
‘We are already working to create screens for banks and pharmacies, and… tried to imagine a return to the beach,’ Claudio Ferrari, NuovaNeon’s owner, told La Repubblica. ‘The idea was born with the dual purpose of protecting people, but also getting beaches up and running again. We’ve already received several requests from both beaches and restaurateurs.’
If the future of beachside bliss really does lie in these slightly dystopian pens, can we at least get some privacy blinds?
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