The problem with living in any well-equipped modern home is that your space is inevitably filled with lots of ugly plastic gizmos. Cable boxes, speakers, power strips, media streamers – you get the idea. So if you tend to favor a more minimalist, natural aesthetic and hide the things that power your digital world, check out this router from the Consortium for Slower Internet.
Rather than simply being another glossy plastic box on your entertainment center, this thing is designed out of wood and marble, and can accommodate a small basin of soil for growing plants. Necessary? Probably not, but its makers hope that the device will inspire users to stop for a moment and reflect on their natural environment while using their technologies. That’s all well and good, but we’re just stoked on the possibility of growing fresh rosemary on our router.
And despite living under a rock, the router isn’t outdated. Underneath the solid marble planter dish there’s a fully-functioning TP-LINK TL-WDR3600 router. Its dual band, 802.11 b/g/n compatible, boasts 300Mpbs throughput rates, and comes with all the requisite ports and connectivity you’d expect form a card-carrying router. And don’t worry about the signal being weakened by the marble enclosure – the router’s antennae aren’t covered, so it can still put out a strong signal.
The router is actually part of the larger Cybernetic Meadow collection – an entire series of naturally-inspired home tech. Check out the website to find the rest of the colleciton, which includes stuff like a planter/iPod dock, and a concrete digital picture frame.
The Cybernetic Meadow router retails for $350.
