What if an elevator could be easily retrofitted into a residence or building—no perilous high voltage, no headroom, no pit, no concrete shaft required?

Such a creature would have to come from Switzerland, home of precision timekeeping and trains that are nicer than your living room. Oh wait, it does! Schindler’s X8 is an evolution in elevation: with frame-less doors, easy installation, quick configuration on the Schindler website, and plug-and-play operation (it simply plugs in just like any home appliance), X8 creates options where choices have always been constrained.

The constraint I speak of mostly revolves around the central concrete shaft common to traditional elevators. A massive structure often smack dab in the middle of the space, the shaft model has historically dictated design of building interiors.

X8, to the contrary, may be installed with a single cutout—floors and ceilings finished prior to installation? No problem!

The aesthetic advantage of designing the elevator to the space (and not the other way around) is complemented by X8’s finish options and ease of configuration. Users choose from six distinct designs within an earthy rubric (options include “Terra,” “Forest,” and “Volcano). Each may include full mirrors, half-mirrors, or no-mirror at all, for those who would prefer to gaze at the handsome interior.

Can the X8 propel furniture-sized chunks of concrete into mid-air? Metaphorically speaking, yes. Shaft be gone! Hello X8. For more evolutions in elevation, see Up to the Future.