We are currently living in a world where we try to escape complex lifestyles and have a desire for deeper relationships, spiritual confirmation and greater meaning.
“We live in an era of uncertainty and mistrust in the established order,” explains Caroline Till, co-founder of FranklinTill Studio.
“As a reaction, we try to live a meaningful, conscious life based on positive relationships. We take responsibility for our lives and look for ways of life that fulfil our value system in search of a new ―a society that aims at promoting the wellbeing of all its citizens.”
The search for new lifestyles in which mindfulness and sustainability play an important role will be the challenge of the coming decades.
Photography: Big Architects/Heimtextil
Pursue play
In an era of uncertainty, political instability and environmental problems, we satisfy our need for optimism and creativity with play. Playing helps us to find meaning in the midst of chaos and turbulent times. Designers thus playfully focus on uninhibited, tactile interactions and experiments.
Daring, cheeky product, room and fashion designs are loosened up with a touch of humour. Shapes and colour palettes take on a surrealistic note and the concept of L’art pour l’art once again commands attention.
The use of rich primary colours is playful and naive, while the combination of high-gloss and matt textures creates a palatable visual appeal. Abstract forms, bold play with patterns and exuberant textures challenge us to be imaginative and invent our own stories.
Photography: Faye Toogood for Takeyari/Heimtextil
Seek sanctuary
In the midst of our intense, hyper-connected everyday life, more and more people are looking for ways to ‘cut off’ all connections―for utopian havens of peace amidst all the noise. They retreat to urban oases where they can switch off to find relaxation, a new perspective and clarity.
However, this essentialism does not mean that we have to categorically reject products. Rather, is it about the targeted search for and appreciation of design pieces and concepts that are simple, beautiful, functional and high quality. The combination of a minimalist colour palette with carefully selected structural details, curvy shapes and upholstery gives rise to comfort and warmth.
Photography: Heimtextil
Go off-grid
The search for a new closeness to nature leads to a hankering for experiences beyond a networked everyday life. It is an attempt to live more naturally, to return to the origins of humanity and to live in harmony with nature―and not against it. It is about cross-border experiences in remote locations, supported by high-tech survival equipment. The combination of hard-wearing technical aspects of outdoor textiles and workwear requires a sophisticated, utilitarian aesthetic and promises durability and functionality. Colours and patterns inspired by nature celebrate the supposed ‘imperfection’ of the natural.
Photography: Museum of the Future/Heimtextil
Escape reality
A new utopia can be rooted in both the digital and the real. The potential of virtual and extended reality blurs the boundaries between fantasy and reality. We are working on a technology that enables deeper and more lasting experiences in daily life. Shimmering, iridescent surfaces have a transformative and optimistic quality, are transformed by movement and create a fleeting, intangible form of motion. Mother-of-pearl effects and high gloss create a unique dynamic in designs that seem to achieve the impossible by appearing fluid and in suspension as a solid form that could literally dissolve at any time. Ethereal combinations of light pastel shades create a surrealistic, hyper-real mood.
Photography:Nicholos Worley/Heimtextil
Embrace indulgence
High-quality materials and rich colours, a modernist style and solid craftsmanship combine to form a utopian vision of the future of luxury. In a modern age marked by uncertainty, we look back through rose-tinted glasses to earlier epochs, remember the comfort of the good old days, long for security and surround ourselves with a calm, inviting aesthetic. Cleverly combined, honest materials, creatively implemented ideas and simple opulence form a new kind of comfort as well as give rise to intimacy and a sense of tangibleness.
By London-based studio Franklin Till, Anne Marie Commandeur from the Stijlinstituut Amsterdam and Anja Bisgaard Gaede from SPOTT Trends & Business
