TAPPING INTO MATTER By RANDY REID
Photo credit: Semyon Garenskikh
In March, I sat down over Zoom with Malte Göller, co-founder of Swiss startup Atios AG, to learn about his company’s mission to simplify smart building automation through Matter, the emerging open standard backed by Apple, Google, Amazon, and others. At the time, I was still trying to wrap my head around the concept. Wasn’t Matter just a residential protocol? What did it have to do with DALI, KNX, and the more complex systems used in commercial and multifamily housing? Two weeks later, I met with Malte again, this time in person at Euroluce during Salone del Mobile.Milan. That follow-up clarified what Atios is really offering: a bridge between reliable, wired infrastructure and the intuitive control that end users now expect from their devices. By leveraging Matter, Atios gives tenants the sleek control experience they know from consumer tech, while offering electricians and developers the stability and scalability they need for large-scale builds.
The Challenge: Complexity in Smart Homes During our first meeting, I explained my own frustration with smart home tech such as Nest, Philips Hue, Cree bulbs, and Ring, each with its own app, occasionally
72
designing lighting