Hasta La Ideas

Interiors and products will need more tactile designs as the use of computers and screens makes us crave a sense of touch, trend forecaster Li Edelkoort predicts in this last movie filmed at Dezeen Live.

“The more screens we have the more our figures are afraid we’re going to disappear,” she says. “I feel it already in my fingers that they want me to touch lots of things so I don’t loose contact with touch.” Edelkoort therefore predicts that textiles will be increasingly important in interior design, supporting the increasingly nomadic lifestyle that mobile technology permits.

“You can be in the middle of the desert and people will think you’re in New York,” she says, “So you become anonymous and you don’t care anymore where you are. I think that sort of freedom which is going to be created will make us want to have lots of textiles, lots of rugs, we will have portable tables, portable sinks, portable lights like lanterns.”

This nomadic attitude could also alter our social relationships, she suggests. “This liberty we have now in work and play will reflect also in the other parts of life, so eating, sleeping, entertaining, we would be more nomadic about that, not always sitting at the same table with the same partner.”

Edelkoort proposes grandparents and grandchildren as “the new couple of the future,” as people live longer and choose more freely who to spend their time with. She thinks that “individualism is over and so people care much more about family, even if it’s chosen family and friends,” leading to a more compassionate society. “It’s all about a society which is, let’s say, softer, more rounded, more textured.”

Above: image by Michael Baumgarten

Edelkoort begins the talk with an image showing the hands of a child and elderly person. “There is a falling away of the generation gap, whereas grandparents are very young and young children are very old,” she says. “They hang out together for a while… it means that you can be a baby your whole life, or you can be already old even when you’re born. I think that age is now going to be more of a mental thing than a physical thing actually.”

Above: felt cushion by Peta Lee and designs by Coral Stephens

The next image represents nomadism and shows textiles with portable furniture. “We have all our devices we can work and stay wherever we want,” says Edelkoort. “This new feeling of freedom, which is fairly recent, is only now starting to modify the brain I believe.”

Above: Mine Kafon by Massoud Hassani

Her third image shows Massoud Hassani’s device for seeking and destroying landmines, based on a wind-powered toy and made of bamboo and plastic components. “It’s a mine killer, but its completely organic and very cheap,” Edelkoort says, adding “it’s very beautiful how a childhood toy can become now such an amazing device.”

Above: Teresa Toys by DMOCH

Next is a set of building blocks for children comprising rounded wooden pieces and small leather balls. “This is to teach babies how to feel form and how to create buildings and skylines, and it’s like soft toys instead of the square toys,” she explains. “Of course, already the babies have their screens so this is to counterbalance the screens.”

Above: photo by Thomas Straub for Madé for View on Colour

The final image shows a mask incorporating bones and introduces the 2013 Arnhem fashion biennial (MoBa 13) that Edelkoort is curating on the theme of fetishism. “There is a moment in fashion where there is this super need to be very fetishistic. There is animalism, there is children’s behaviors, there is of course bondage, there is lace, there is fur, feathers and so on,” she explains. “I’m going to investigate why.”

Edelkoort concludes with the idea that “trend forecasting is like archeology but to the future”, explaining how she looks for little fragments in current culture to predict what’s coming next.

Dezeen Live was a series of discussions between Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs and a number of designers and critics that took place at design exhibition 100% Design during London Design Festival this September.

Each of the four one-hour shows, recorded live in front of an audience, included three interviews plus music from Dezeen Music Project featuring a new act each day. We’ve been posting all the movies we filmed on Dezeen and you can watch all the movies from Dezeen Live here.

The music featured in the movie is a track called Business Class Refugees by Indian record label EarthSync. Listen to more of their songs on Dezeen Music Project.

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tactility” – Li Edelkoort at Dezeen Live appeared first on Dezeen.