Try to imagine what your kitchen will look like in 30 years... pretty hard right? But that's exactly what the folk at The Future Laboratory have attempted to do in their report commissioned by IKEA, The Future of Kitchens.
The report by this group of "Futurologists" predicts the future by looking at current trends and statistics. IKEA also commissioned a huge art piece "SURREALISTIKA" which sat in the courtyard of the Barbican:
Home furnishings experts IKEA bring creativity, fantasy and imagination to life through SURREALISTIKA a surreal kitchen sculpture at The Surreal House exhibition at the Barbican Centre, London. Credit: VisMedia
Last Thursday I jetted off to London to meet with the people from IKEA and attend a debate held in the Barbican. While I was there I had a chat with the folk from from Future Laboratory, who told me about future health, mind control and augmented reality.
One particular futuristic item I found particularly interesting was the 3D food printer; a device that stores, mixes and deposits layers of ingredients to create a meal. Supposedly, this invention could greatly aid in the fight against food scarcity, world hunger and poverty - if it ever becomes possible to manufacture such a device cheaply.
While the folk from future labs didn't have a crystal ball to tell us what kitchen would look like in 30 years, they did offer some fascinating suggestions as to how the kitchen may change to accommodate futuristic lifestyles.
Lifestyle factors (which Future Laboratory called drivers) included mass urbanisation - an idea that world population will rocket, and we'll be living in "Mega-cities - with populations of more than 10 million" and eventually "mega regions that will span hundreds of kilometres across countries and be inhabited by more than 100 million people" - Yikes!
They also spoke about our ever growing tendencies towards digital lifestyles - and that the "collaboration, immediacy and empowerment" that we have grown to expect from the internet will perhaps continue to influence our offline lives.
As for the debate, the panel consisted of a number of experts including David Fisher, Design Director of Seymourpowell, Oliver Heath, Eco-designer, Writer and TV presenter, Gerry Dufrense, IKEA Kitchen Range Strategist, Naomi Cleaver, Author and Designer, Charlie Luxton, Architect, Martin Raymond, Strategy and Insight Director, Donna Dawson, Psychologist and Jasmine Birtles, Founder of moneymagpie.com.
A number of topics were discussed during the debate, and the future of ecology was an issue that was repeatedly raised. While some argued that the responsibility for energy efficiency rested in the hands of designers and the manufacturing industry, others believed that re-education and awareness on an individual level was key.
Do you think that it's up to us individuals to take on a more eco-friendly lifestyle or would it be more effective for the manufacturers and designers of the world to be conscious of these things for us? Tell us in the comments!
And while you're at it, tell us your unique vision of the 2040 kitchen!
