“To me design is culture, design is our environment, design is progress, design is future, design is a creative way of expression. It is a vast term which includes anything and everything from our lives. In short, design is something that makes our lives worth living.” — Endavi Katara.
This favourite all-encompassing design quote leaves plenty of room for anti establishment! The future is Design. Design is technology. So all things said, moving ahead is to embrace all that is new, with never a back to the timeworn. As we push on to the 22nd century, flying cars floating homes and subterranean living will be a reality. Technology will decide much of our careers, employability and lifestyle. Technology is heralding a new era. And with it our homes.
When all about us is set to be refined and crafted for a tomorrow, space and furniture design can’t be left adrift in the realms of the versed. With a daily dose of tech-orientation, furniture design is steadily being altered. While design in furniture lends itself to innovative ways of crafting goods, with comfort and ease of use at the helm of the checklist, today’s minimalism may be tomorrow’s flamboyance. Ease in use of a piece of furniture is expected to be further finespun with elements of mobility, additionally bestowing the quality of multipurpose use and weathering. Modular, an oft-used term is speedily undergoing a transformation, wherein we are now meant to alter our mindsets and bring in manifold versions of motility for our present set pieces. To animate the fixtures, perhaps promote them to their future versions altogether in foldout homes as well, in the course of time. Quite a step up from the humble mobile caravan.
Understanding your client’s needs is key to getting ahead in devising a plan. Good design is all about knowing what people want. Internet connectivity, networking, wifi, bluetooth, upload, cloud computing were unfamiliar terms 10 years ago. Today, villages across India have technicians and homemakers alike who spout tech jargon as easily as they pepper their rasams! In the years to come, data mining and collection and purchase patterns will be the technological equivalent of mind reading or the old fashioned Q & A to gauge the ethos and psyche of our patrons. Customising is a pricey prospect, so it’s best to get it right the first time around, armed with adequate material off the customer’s want list. Data survey apps at minimal costs will find their ways into all mobile handsets and feed into design database pools soon enough to help discern buyer purchase patterns.
Virtual Reality is the power and is going to define our future. Ikea brought out the idea and patented it years ago. Soon most design stores, furniture companies and architects and designers will use VR and simulated software to place pieces of furniture virtually in your space, colour correct and edit, add patterns to the vista for a better understanding of the composition. This will help designers eliminate delays and hasten the process of arrival at the final form. Most fashion design firms have already begun to institute similar techniques in helping their clientele visualise the possibilities. Furniture shopping is all set to become easier with this new doohickey.
Residents of the future will have wrested control of their myriad devices in their smart homes from afar, simply with the push of a button or the swipe of an app. Imagine a time when the room and the armchair is warmed to receive you after a long day away, the bath is timed to fill, the bed is turned down, all at the stroke of a finger from miles away. Security networks currently are wired to shut down systems and send out SOS messages to the local control rooms and action intruder alerts. The beginnings of a landscape of dandy home appliances, marvelous furniture and fittings and magical contraptions that will heed to your commands. Back to the future is now a reality. The sci-fi era is officially here.
Self sustaining energy homes that are off the grid with solar panelling, wind turbine installations, self sufficient water systems, rain water harvesting, waste management and vermicomposting is set to be our emission-free future. Designers and home makers alike are schooling themselves in these diverse subjects alongside new technology.
We foresee a time when the world of furniture manufacturing and technology are irrevocably allied. Structural concepts and designs are better stated with the use of cutting edge technology, and shared at a rapid pace across the Internet. Feedback and fine tuning have a quick turn around time ensuring improvements in the products. This is certainly the celebratory time to be associated with the design space. So much more to this than meets the eye. We are literally at the tip of the iceberg waiting to unearth a whole new tech savvy design world below.
Here’s wishing you well on your journey to the discovery of design in these exciting times!
The writer is an interior designer and director at Sugar My Space, Studio SMS.
