Speculations on the Future of Design
It’s nearly 2020, and we must admit that our collective reality looks nothing like what it used to back in 2010.
Siri and Alexa. 4K screen resolution. IBM’s Watson. Boston Dynamics’ Atlas. Tesla’s Cybertruck. 4D printing. 5G technology. Same-sex marriage. The #metoo movement. Greta Thunberg. Jacinda Ardern. CRISPR/Cas9. The Higgs boson. The high probability of life on Mars… The 1%. The 0.01%. The refugee crisis. The climate crisis. The biodiversity crisis. Populist politics and their consequences. Minorities, People of Colour and First Nations’ rights still being blatantly violated throughout the world.
All of these are markers of the 2010s but what will the 20s hold? Only time will tell so here goes nothing.
Here are seven end-of-the-decade speculations on the future of design.
1-Architecture—my passion—which I left back in 1995 because I did not want to design low-cost multi-res nor ostentatious abodes. Good architecture obviously exists nowadays but power often resides with developers. What happened to human-centered architecture and designing for the human scale? No one needs a stone benchtop in their kitchen whilst their bathroom door opens into the living room.
The time is now 2030. During the 20s, the industry rebelled and freed itself from the grip of financiers. Fast and ubiquitous architecture is a remanence of the past and architects are finally able to design for respect, context, sustainability and social inclusion. Repurposing corporate towers in urban environments to instigate new societal narratives captures the zeitgeist of the time.
2-Sensorial Design. As the physical and digital worlds combine to create interactive and immersive environments, our products, accessories and spaces are responding to who we are, where we go, what we touch, feel, hear, smell and even taste. From architecture to interior and industrial to fashion design, sensescaping is the new landscaping — and form follows feelings the new mantra.
3-Communication Design. Graphic design is now an art form and most commercial brandmarks and design languages are designed by artificial intelligence. As the world around us becomes increasingly complex, animation, motion graphics, CGI and mixed reality designers are highly sought after to visually communicate everything that needs explaining.
4-Critical and Speculative Design—my practice. Design is not just a form-based or problem-solving practice. As technological generations shorten from years to months, designers increasingly move towards discursive design practices to explore the environmental, social and ethical impact of past, current and emerging technologies. Critical and speculative designers build worlds filled with new products, spaces and services. These designs either provide a critique of the status quo—or bring ideas to life and help us think through the futures we need, and are proposing.
5-Robotic and Bio-Fabrication. Due to the impact of the climate crisis, Human-Decentered design — i.e. decentering the human from the design process to benefit all living species and ensure ecosystem regeneration — became a core skill of every design practice. Machine-assisted form generation, robotics and bio-fabrication are used in every discipline, pushing designers to focus on designing the right thing rather than designing the thing right. The fact of the matter is that robots and other forms of nonhuman intelligence are simply better at designing for resource conservation. Meanwhile, a resurgence of the Arts and crafts industry ensures traditional making skills aren’t forgotten.
6-Circular Biodesign — also my practice — is the next step beyond biomimicry and biophilic approaches to design and fabrication. Through the use of biomaterials and living organisms, biodesign replaces industrial, mechanical or technological systems with biological processes — an approach becoming more important under the pressure of the climate crisis.
2030: the physical world around us becomes alive! Or at least fully biodegradable. Genetics and biology basics are taught in design schools and designers grow materials instead of mining them. New biomaterial libraries are popping up everywhere and DNA coding becomes yet another tool for any up-and-coming creative technologist.
7-Bionic Design. Anchored in the belief that life can evolve beyond its current physical and mental limitations, we see the emergence of new technologies enabling everything from designer’s pets to body enhancements to improve performance and longevity (e.g. smart organs and in vivo wearables). Jurassic Park becomes real although it’s called Anthropocene Park, and its conservation approach is focused on reviving the species we’ve lost to economic growth since the start of the industrial era. As society relaxes to the concept of transhumanism, these designs open the door to many debates on the future of life and humankind.
Dr Olivier (Ollie) Cotsaftis is a transdisciplinary researcher-practitioner exploring pathways towards regenerative and more-than-human futures. His work at the RMIT University School of Design focuses on unlocking scalable potentials for ecological transitions, especially through biomaterials and climate adaptation. Before joining RMIT, Ollie was a design lead at Fjord Design and Innovation and the founder of future ensemble studio. He is currently an editorial board member for Biotechnology Design (Cambridge Press, UK) and the co-founder of neomatter, a nature repair and nature-based solutions startup.
