Expect the unexpected
By Andrea Jones | theage.com.au | 26 March
If you were feeling tetchy driving to work this morning, did your car automatically slow down and stop you doing something aggressively foolish? It will in the not-too-distant future.
And when you got to work and saw that there were 47 emails awaiting you, did any of them take into account just how time-pressed you were? They might not today but they will one day, according to futurist Richard Watson.
"Toyota is already working on a car that will work out what sort of mood the driver is in and adjust itself accordingly," says Watson, who has consulted for Toyota and a range of other large corporations. He also says that in the future canny internet advertisers will track your keystrokes on your computer to work out how busy you are "and will modify their message accordingly".
If that sounds intrusive, get used to it, he warns. "From a technological viewpoint, privacy is dead and we should accept that."
Watson, author of Future File: A History Of The Next 50 Years (Scribe), is a keynote speaker at Designex, the interior design industry's annual trade-only exhibition and seminar series, starting next Thursday. It's where manufacturers and big homewares brands launch their latest products.
This year's exhibition has an eco-conscious mood. Even Jamie Durie is weighing in as an Al Gore-nominated ambassador on global warming, delivering a seminar on climate change and what the design industry can do about it.
Watson, however, remains cynical about our personal commitment to reducing global warming.
"Green is this year's colour," he says. "If I see another carbon neutral cappuccino or beer where trees have been planted to offset emissions ..." He sighs. "I think there's a very strong fashion element to this. And there is quite a serious amount of eco-exhaustion building up.
"What I see is people pulling down houses to build new ones to the very boundaries and putting in enormous amounts of glass and installing massive air conditioners. The average Australian family is getting smaller but the average Australian dwelling is getting bigger and the size of the rooms is going up. At the same time if you look at the airlines only 1 per cent of clients pay for the carbon emissions' offset option [on their airline ticket]."
Watson has worked on strategic planning with Virgin, St George and Coles Myer and has a clear message to corporations wanting to stay relevant in the next decade: provenance.
"At the moment that's something that's only really important in wine and food. But there will be a protectionist backlash against China and India and things will become a lot more local. So if something's made by some bloke in a shed in the Blue Mountains, that's pretty authentic compared to if it's knocked out in a factory in Vietnam."
Watson describes himself as "cynically optimistic" about the future.
"We have got a bit of a bottleneck to go through," he says. He predicts a crunch-time on global warming and diminishing resources which will occur within the next 20 years.
"But if you go out to 50 years, it gets more interesting. There are these wonderful things that are going to be invented - you will have nano-engineering at a sub-atomic level, with artificial intelligence and robots, and there's the promise of nanotechnology in genetics."
Designex - new products
Here are some of the design innovations and homeware highlights being launched.
Marmoleum is back as a stylish, sustainable option for flooring. Marcel Wanders is one of 12 Dutch designers who have come up with new shades for the Marmoleum Dutch Collection, available from Forbo Floorcoverings (from $51 a metre). Phone 1800 224 471 or see www.forbo-flooring.com.au.
Sydney label In Your Room's moulded plywood tables and stools have become a staple of contemporary family rooms. Now comes a new addition, the Y-Front Side Table, $495, from Funkis Swedish Forms in Bondi, 9365 0573.
A pull-out ironing board that slots into your washer and dryer stack - now that's smart thinking. The modular pieces of Asko's new laundry system make it ideal for small spaces. (The ironing board section is $649.) Phone 1300002756.
Wallpaper that changes colour: Florence Broadhurst's designs have been reissued in metallics with new technology inks that change shades depending on the light. From $350 a roll, from Signature Prints, Rosebery, 8338 8400.
Here's a welcome kitchen innovation: self-opening drawers. The lightest touch commands the drawers to action. Produced by Blum, a company renowned for its smooth-operating kitchen components, the drawers can be specified when you get your kitchen redesigned. Contact Blum on 1800179186.
Elegantly disguised as a ceramic dish, this is Electrolux's new convection cooktop, the Aurora. Convection is now the European standard for cooking. It has precision temperature control and the surface around the pan remains cool. Phone 1300363640.
First published by TheAge.com.au on March 26 2008
Visit theage.com.au for the latest news updated throughout the day
