Sense by MACO brings adaptive intelligence to smart homes

The dream of a connected and technological home, interacting and understanding how to improve the life of those who live in it, was born in the years of great recovery after the Second World War: but it’s not so much a matter of Space Age fantasies, of Jetsons-style cartoon houses, as it is something that, throughout the history of modern architecture, has been pursued and cultivated with extremely hands-on visions, even when they were provocative. We can think of the screens in Ugo La Pietra’s Casa Telematica, or those imagined for the façade of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and then come back inside the homes, to that leap forward represented by the Internet of Things, by a vision in which the objects of domestic space can form a supportive and interactive network.
In the background, the evolution of home automation, year after year, update after update, refines an idea of homes that combine passive techniques and philosophies for energy and sustainability with active ones to manage and monitor the space and the building.

Contemporary intelligence in architecture is adaptive intelligence, relational intelligence, the ability to harmonize with the context, and to harmonize the context itself: and context can be, more often than it seems, the technological system of a house. It is in this vision that a project like Sense by MACO fits, a wireless sensor system that detects the opening and closing of doors and windows. Sense by MACO is in fact smart, not only in terms of digital intelligence, but also in terms of adaptive intelligence. The sensors require no wiring as they are powered by standard, easily available batteries, and they are easily installed without the need for specific modifications to the frame, becoming invisible once the window is closed. They can be mounted directly into the hardware groove or onto the rebate of the frame: for window manufacturers working on new builds, this is an advantage—but it’s also an advantage for anyone wanting to make their windows an active part of the smart home ecosystem, without needing special technical skills.

In an era in which operating systems are increasingly “talking” to each other with ease – and in which a long experience with home automation has taught us that its primary danger is obsolescence – Sense by MACO responds with an unprecedented level of interoperability. All the sensors communicate using the Matter protocol, developed with support from Apple, Google, Amazon, and Samsung to establish a universal standard in smart home management: this makes it possible to operate them through various virtual assistants, and to have them interact with climate control, shading, lighting systems, and the home’s network of electrical outlets. It becomes possible, in short, to optimize energy consumption, and to increase the comfort and safety of the domestic environment.

The adaptability to existing structures, and the enhancement of new ones guaranteed by Sense by MACO, unfolds in a multitude of solutions. The maximum versatility and possibility of retrofitting are the hallmark of Universal, the first wireless sensor on the market that can control different types of frames regardless of the mechanism they use. If, instead, the frame is created in combination with MACO Multi Matic (IQ) hardware, the Window Pro T&T sensor, usable in all profiles, is placed directly into the hardware groove. Door is the module specifically designed for doors, capable of monitoring various types of cylinder locks, whether mechanical or manual. For windows opening outward, the Casement sensor combined with the MACO Espags system can instead be installed on the frame side, making installation simple both in production and as a retrofit. Smart homes are increasingly made up of solutions that are, above all, intuitions, gestures that simplify domestic life to improve its quality: and it is precisely this intuitive versatility that makes Sense by MACO an expression of intelligent living.