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By Hannah Martin
Architects and designers have been thinking for a long time about what the long term holds. In the 1930s, the French architect Le Corbusier envisioned a radiant city where effective concrete block dwellings were created with carefully cultivated green spaces. After World War II, American architect Buckminster Fuller envisioned others living in cheap, mass-produced homes, such as his Dymaxion portable home, designed to reduce water intake; you may simply send it to the owner in a steel pipe. And in the mid-20th century, Americans Charles and Ray Eames designed for a world where furniture was simple, durable, and affordable, according to their well-known philosophy of “making the ultimate productive for the best and the bareest.” Looking to the long term has been part of the job.
So, as the world’s tectonic plates move beneath us once again, in the midst of COVID-19’s double pandemic and systemic racism, we asked some of today’s creatives what they saw in the future. Their answers range from practical (less waste, more modular furniture) to conceptual (more varied design narratives, deeper relationships with our things). But one idea resonated with the group: we’ll have to question the accepted way of doing things. We have to change. Light designer Bec Brittain prefers queries to answers. One that is close to his heart: “If we only do beautiful things, what is our social obligation?” Here are nine predictions that creatives are looking for.
1. A Eurocentric narrative
While the Western world takes into account its beyond and its racist present, creatives await a refocus of more varied design narratives. Palaash Chaudhary and Utharaa Zacharias, from Soft-Geometry based in San Jose, imagine “a slow start to redefine what is a desirable aesthetic in design and diversify it from a unique Eurocentric visual narrative”. BIPOC designers, like us, can be bolder when they look at our own cultures and stories for inspiration and aesthetic influence. Evan Jerry, from the London-based Anansi studio, echoes this sentiment, noting the recent “attention call” of global design in the face of the lack of representation that black designers have long faced. “This disruption of the established aesthetics of the design industry forces it to expand to come with a multitude of stories and perspectives that can be told to more people,” he explains. “More perspectives of women, more queer and trans perspectives, more customers for other people with disabilities, more black prospects. I think a long-term design that focuses on many individual narratives, rather than just one. Gabriel Hendifar of New York The lighting brand, Apparatus, agrees: “I hope more people from a wide variety of backgrounds can tell their stories in a celebrated and lively way. I hope that seeing those stories expands our concepts about what it means to live well. »
New York designer Robert Sukrachand also has an idea about representation. His prediction: “Large design corporations and small studios will be forced to face the harsh truth of a white-dominated industry. If this challenge of representation is solved, we will see a rebirth of artistic production. A general embrace and commitment of these voices will result in a rich soul design network. A large segment of the buyer’s audience whose desires have been overlooked will begin to be fulfilled. We will lose our taste for “global chic” cartoons and be more complex and non-homogenized relationships with conceptions from all over the world. More importantly, the design will be stripped of its narrow capitalist definition and will be perceived as what it is: a political tool.
2. Hand generation crafts and paintings
Cape Town artist and designer Atang Tshikare foresees a fourth commercial revolution, where generation simplifies manufacturing, and what was once considered a genius or rare will be a daily offering. In this world, imagine that “craft and old creation strategies will be sought. Artists will paint with experts from the generation to expand and modify their production, and artistic freedom will be relative as human rights become increasingly regulated. The new Yeezy foam carpet, where an artist creates garments that sell out in a matter of hours, is a wonderful example of this type of design and generation.
3. More furniture
As many of us have moved all facets of our lives – painting, school, gym, recreation – to our homes, our furniture has had to carry out responsibilities that we never imagined. As a result, according to Los Angeles-based designer Leah Ring, “the importance of fluffy and flexible house paints and an environment is paramount. It predicts that more flexible furniture: indoor/outdoor furniture, a workplace that transforms into a dining table, Modular seats that can be assembled to create a sofa and dismantled to allow socially remote seats, etc., will continue to gain popularity.
4. Acquisition of nature
After months confined to our home, we cannot overestimate the importance of green spaces. Designers anticipate that plants, whether a back garden or lush garden, will play a more important role in residential design. “The connection to the outdoors is a transformative component of life,” says New York landscape architect Sara Zewde, “from the small adaptations we’ve made to our homes and our daily lives, to the large-scale renovation of parks and streets. and places to accommodate everything from rural hospitals to outdoor meals These adjustments would possibly mark a continuous movement towards an outward reorientation and therefore to others, in the future.
But being in touch with nature isn’t just about having more plants around. New York architect Serban Ionescu says: “Too many durable designs directly bring the same lines and boxes that we see that are mediocre and disconnected from nature’s lax bureaucracy. Nature is not explicit in hotlines. Nature is emotional and unpredictable. Green is wild, irregular, irregular, curved, underground and mysterious. It has insects and is rarely scary and aesthetically unpleasant. I think the long-term design looks scary and wild.
5. Objects as companions
“Possibly, in spite of everything, we would have reached the beginning of the functional obsession,” says Soft-Geometry’s Palaash and Utharaa. “We live through the maximum and brilliant connection of problems between elements, spaces and people. With limited connectivity with friends and family, your appointments with your home take on a more vital role than ever and the elements around you become carriers of stories, stories, culture and feelings. The chaos of a studio or the talk of a workplace presented exchanges and collaborations that made us more creative. In his absence, his collection of ceramic tiles may also be larger than the dining table with elastic sheets. Serban agrees: “This lamp you just brought here out of necessity is your puppy now. Maybe you’d like to have a lamp that goes beyond the function, that has more character, color, personality. After spending so much time with this lamp, he looks at it now. You may even need to throw it away. Please. Let’s redesign our homescapes. Pick up only what you need and like, because you can also get stuck with that. Or you can become a friend.
6. Focus on the essentials
“I think we’ll see a major change, for a while, away from ostentation,” says New York-based artist and designer Joseph Algieri. “I think other people will spend less, there will be fewer projects and special requests, fewer shows. It’s time to reconsider how we come combined as a community. Many designers think in the same direction. As Mark Grattan of Mexico City- Based on VIDIVIXI explains: “The pandemic is shifting our attention to things that deserve to have been more important: a life of inclination and appreciation nationwide. Cook more, save more, paint more walls, water more gardens and indoor and outdoor farms. He predicts that the obsession with fashion, which focuses almost on both the viewer and the genuine user, will be replaced by “our quick self and our fast environment, how they make us feel our non-public spaces and how we see ourselves using those spaces more effectively.” and enjoy it simultaneously.
7. Less waste
In Serban’s vision, long-term fabrics are mostly sustainable. These are fabrics that we have already recycled, repaired and resurrected as new. “More of all the plastics that break constantly and want to be replaced every year,” he says. “We’ll have to make compostable items for single use or durable items of importance and soul.”
8. Commercial and more stylish-looking spaces
We’re putting everything we have in our homes right now. But what does this mean for the other indoor areas in which we still live and live? “I think that as residential areas become more textured, laminated, intimate, and unique, advertising areas will begin to feel more sterile and larger, a sign to the public that corporations are taking cleanliness and social distance precautions very seriously,” says the Los Angeles-based company. Architect. and designer Jerome Byron, who has experimented with several retail projects. “Recent finishes in the work area were intended to create home environments (i.e., manipulate staff from building by offering them family equipment). But I think the focus will now be largely on protecting workers and perhaps reducing the benefits of compromising the non-public area. Joseph Algieri sees this aesthetic sterilization replace the proceed in the color palettes and materials. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw the overall finish of Memphis, which in its own way is the capricious appropriation of the 80s boom, exaggerated wealth, drugs, synths,” he explains. The palette and theme can range from sophisticated and eye-catching to sophisticated and robust. The medical grade blue is there, the bubble rose is removed. »
9. A DIY approach
Trapped at home, examining every square inch of space, many other people have become cunning with new projects. Jerome predicts that this trend would possibly offer a new design aesthetic. “In recent months, I have detected a steady increase in the number of instructional and explanatory videos on TikTok and YouTube, which shows me that other people are eager to be informed about how to build their own furniture and have a company in their own decoration,” he explains. “I think this can also lead to a DIY aesthetic with fabrics that can be easily achieved at the local hardware store.”
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