It wasn’t just a bedroom but a room-bed, and after removing my shoes at the door, needless to say, everything was a soft cloud

The first time I was able to hold a sample of “Gommapiuma” or foam rubber, I got so carried away that while mechanically continuing to stroke it, my fantasy wandered off into a world of strange architectures… in foam rubber (undoubtedly the finest material for building a castle in the sky).

Have you ever tried to stroke a foam rubber mattress? It is soft, elastic and tender, rather like caressing a beautiful woman. Indeed, it was not strange that my imagination should wander.

My large work table was littered with a vast range of samples […]. My hands passed from one to the other, to then return with almost carnal pleasure to the sample of foam rubber, the “feminine” product ad honorem. I envisaged a torpid slumberhouse in foam rubber, a house that – although still not clear in my mind – I would like to describe, with the hope that someone less indolent than myself will find my description useful.

First of all, in that dream I arrive at that house in a car completely rigged out in foam rubber: not only the car seats (a nice effort!), but also the car doors, the steering wheel, the dashboard and the steering column, the flooring and the inside of the car roof. All bumps, jerks and jolts were as pleasurable as a fun-fair ride, the bumpers and mudguards were also padded in foam rubber, so that when I bumped into another vehicle in the nebulous journey of my dreams, the other driver would proffer a smile rather than the customary insult of rude expletives.

Finally arriving at the house, I find with surprise a padded door handle as soft and tender as Laura’s arm (an imaginary name). Entering, I climb the stairs: all floors, steps, the handrails of the staircase as well as the bannisters and walls were soft and padded. Even the soft-padded wardrobe doors welcomed being caressed, as did the bathroom fittings. And what about the bedroom? It wasn’t just a bedroom but a room-bed, and after removing my shoes at the door, needless to say, everything was a soft cloud of foam rubber.

[…] Industrially produced “foam rubber” resolves the problem of creating an infinite range of perfectly defined forms in a resistant, hygienic and sanitised material with the qualities of softness and elasticity that can only be found (to our joy) in the sadly fleeting qualities of ripe fruit or fresh meat.

To fully understand a thing is always a slow process, and therefore too the complete application of a new discovery. Foam rubber – although it has already revolutionised the furniture sector – has not yet been used to its full potential and possibilities.
Mass-produced eternal softness. No mean a feat?