Shopfront: Philippe Starck has designed a new range of sofas for Italian manufacturer Cassina. The idea is to relate the sofa directly to your television: speakers have been integrated into sofa arms and backs; projection units are placed behind and wood trays with angled lights set into armrests, presumably for TV dinners.

It's a dodgy concept - do you really want to be practically in your television? It doesn't really work aesthetically, either. But we guess it reflects the way a lot of people live: you can climb into these sofas (which cost from nearly €6,000 to over 10,000) with little need to get out. Comfortable maybe, but kind of sad. And even Starck couldn't make speakers in a sofa attractive.

Cassina from Haus, Crow Street, Temple Bar, , tel 01 6795155