Dezeen Magazine

Coop Himmelb(l)au's Jammer Coat hides the wearer from Google

Austrian architecture studio Coop Himmelb(l)au has created a quilted spotty cloak designed to protect the wearer from unwanted data collection.

Jammer Coat by Coop Himmelblau

"The CHBL Jammer Coat is a piece of clothing that enables its user to disappear: Google cannot find you anymore," said Coop Himmelb(l)au, who is best known for architecture projects including the Dalian International Conference Center in China.

Jammer Coat by Coop Himmelblau

The padded jacket contains metallic fibres designed to block radio waves and shield against tracking devices. It is lined with pockets that accommodate smartphones, tablets and other devices of different sizes.

Phone and internet signals should be blocked from reaching these devices when stored inside, and information from credit cards is protected from being captured.

Jammer Coat by Coop Himmelblau

The white material is patterned with trails of black spots, added to further distort the body shape.

"The Wave Circle pattern of the fabric gives an illusion of strange multiple body parts, which hides and frees the individual physicality," the architects said.

Jammer Coat by Coop Himmelblau

The coat was created for an exhibition titled Abiti da Lavoro, which will open at Milan's Triennale Design Museum at the end of this month.

In an increasingly monitored society, designers have been coming up with wearable items to aid privacy. Fabrica researchers created headgear to thwart mind-reading surveillance cameras and Adam Harvey designed a range of anti-drone clothing to hide the wearer from heat detection technologies. See more surveillance-related design »