112 SUPERSALONE
THE FUTURE OF TRADE FAIRS
With countries around the world accelerating their vaccination programmes and the hospitality sector reopening, business travel is returning. However, additional costs, documentation and sustainability concerns will make us more selective travellers, making trips where only necessary. With a backdrop of the climate crisis, wildfires spreading across the globe and Sicily recording a European all-time temperature high of 48.8°C, we questioned: ‘Is it necessary to go to international trade fairs?’ It would be more sustainable to attend digitally, but these gatherings are opportunities for creative minds to come together, sparking innovation and resolving issues of our time. At Seymourpowell, we decided that physically attending Salone del Mobile was essential, for invigorating inspiration and to support our design community in its first decisive steps back to recovery. So, we asked: ‘How do we balance creative collaboration with planetary responsibility?’
Travel and mobility
travellers making similar moves this year; according to Euromonitor, ‘48% of global consumers [chose] sustainable travel features versus 52% mass market options in 2021’. But what are the consequences of a mass migration to rail? We predict travellers will likely combine travel destinations
One change that could massively influence the environmental impact of international fairs would be for visitors to choose to travel by train. Based on data from Trainline, our train journey used 92% less CO2
than flying. We were pleased to see other
and go away for longer periods of time. This means there will be a need to facilitate bigger suitcases, remote working and home ofice accommodations. As a result, and from our experience travelling to Milan, trains will need to adapt to meet the needs for flexible living, working and resting. During our 13-hour journey, the space fell short of our needs for ofice, sleeping, dining and mediative zones. It goes without saying that desktop set-ups and Wi-Fi demands will be vital for intercity trains. Adapting from work to rest, we noticed storage was also
problematic and we are not alone. In a 2019 study we conducted into the needs of the travellers of tomorrow, 65% of nomadic businesswomen said that cabin storage didn’t help them to organise themselves during the journey. Could we create better storage solutions within seating areas to accommodate the accoutrements required for working, relaxing and socialising on board?
Thinking more holistically about the wellbeing of travellers,
there is an opportunity to embrace a slower journey and transform the experience. We hope to see more empathetic experiences that help travellers unwind, recharge and reset their senses – from sensorially adaptive interiors to mood-boosting menus.
Data
An unseen and overlooked carbon impact of major events is the swathe of digital content creation. With an influx of social media posts and live streams, what is the carbon cost and how can we curb the burden while still sharing and celebrating design? Quantifying the exact impact of digital attendance to fairs
is a complex and laborious task, but to give a bit of context we found that uploading one photo on Instagram is equal to the carbon created to drive 1.3m in a light vehicle. Although this seems small, the cumulative effect is substantial. According to Salone del Mobile, in 2019 there were 97,000 posts on Instagram with the hashtag #Fuorisalone2019, which created carbon emissions equivalent to driving from London to Spain. Considering the totality of hashtags, posts and uploads for
digital shows, we start imagining the toll this takes. The Shift Project, a French think tank specialising in digital carbon impact, proposes we curb our over-consumption of digital content and move towards ‘digital sobriety’, making conscious changes to reduce carbon-heavy digital activities. They call the transition ‘Lean ICT’, which we tried to put into practice during Milan 2021 by:
1. Prioritising images over video. On Instagram, consuming video is ten times more carbon intensive than an image, according to Greenspector. We condensed our posts and prioritised the grid over more carbon-intensive stories. 2. Upgrading devices less often. Some 45% of the energy consumption of digital devices is in the production stage. Despite new handsets by Apple announced during our trip to Milan, we will be sticking to our older handsets for longer. 3. Using Wi-Fi where possible. ‘Using a phone over a mobile network is at least twice as energy intensive as using it over Wi-Fi,’ said Lancaster University’s Mike Hazas. This proved dificult moving around a city-wide fair like Salone del Mobile. We hope to see more public, free and safe Wi-Fi coverage to aid lean ICT practices in the future.
13
Future habitats
Te overnight adoption of online working and socialising rituals has blurred the lines between our physical and digital realities. Tis was reflected in Milan with progressive products born from surrealist digital origins, manifesting in fantastical physical expressions. Designers are questioning how we behave in these hybrid spaces and what we’re prepared to trade for seamless convenience.
Connected ecosystems: With our homes becoming more dynamic than ever and work set to continue in the domestic space, home technology has become omnipresent. Chinese tech giants had a strong presence this year, with brands like Xiaomi, Haier and Hoover exhibiting new domestic digital experiences with fully integrated and silent tech. Haier’s internet of things (IoT) installation uses voice-assisted technology and data collection to demonstrate how in the future you could prepare a dinner for friends entirely ‘remotely’ using the hOn app.
Casa Xiaomi also impressed with its white, pure, yet engaging range of connected home products. Te near-silent standing fan particularly stood out as a high-quality player against other brands. Te branded apartment reveals different ways of living and sharing technology within the domestic space, allowing owners to manage the functions, consumption and performance of everyday objects. However, it poses the question of whether this smart home would require you to get rid of all your home electricals and replace them with a single branded ecosystem, or will tech giants start talking to each other to unify around an open system?
Raised awareness: In reaction to the use of technology, designers addressed concerns around online privacy, data harvesting practices and increased daily screen time. Julia Janssen’s project One Click questions the notion of ‘informed consent’ currently written under the EU law. Janssen makes the
complexity and opacity of data harvesting tangible by printing the 835 privacy policies users accept when clicking ‘Got it’ on
DailyMail.co.uk into a 300 page book. Te project is an invitation to slow down and understand what we are agreeing to online. While becoming more integrated, invisible and seamless, we wonder how future technology can address the tensions of human consent?
Born digital, made physical: Living in a digital world for the past two years, designers are developing new modes of practice where digital matter becomes raw material for creation. At Nilufar Depot, Andrés Reisinger’s surrealist furniture collection Odyssey is configured as a union between physical and digital, where the physical work cannot exist without its digital image. Te installation plunges the visitor into a futuristic realm, questioning the emotional terrain and theoretical implications of digital-led design.
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