15th January 2020

Home for uncertain times 2035

Message for a future

A design EXHIBITION

This exhibition is the final stage of Innovation Studio, a design lab of the Master in Product Service System Design of the Design School of Politecnico di Milano.

91 designers / 15 ideas for our homes in 2035

Opening night: 22nd of January 2020 at 6pm

Exhibition: from 23rd to 26th of January 2020 from 10am to 8pm

Location:

COMBO

Ripa di Porta Ticinese, 83 - Milano

Our future is UNCERTAIN

We are SCARED but we HOPE for the best

There will be DRAMATIC CLIMATE CHANGES

Our role as DESIGNERS is to SUGGEST new lifestyles

The exhibition intends to send a message for a possible future taking into consideration the dramatic climate changes that we will be experiencing in the next 15 years. The artefacts embody uncertainty through messiness and accumulation: objects that clutter our lives today create the background for our projects. In this uncertainty our projects give us hope for a future.

INNOVATION STUDIO this year focused on how to design product-service system solutions for a very uncertain and unpredictable future. A future influenced by climate change that may transform some of our daily practices. Transformations, that need not be dramatic, but on the contrary may disrupt our habits for a better living on this planet, enhancing the sense of community, humanity and the quality of social interactions. Designers, as always, will have a crucial role in conceiving products and services that support people in this changing environment.

Climate change is affecting people and lifestyles. Some regions are already experiencing extreme weather events, while others are just starting to perceive these transformations. In the next few decades there seems to be little doubt that most cities around the world will have to adapt and attempt to mitigate some of the conditions that are emerging.

Without wanting to depict a dystopian picture, there are a few characteristics of the future that we can quite confidently predict as environmental conditions are transformed. Temperatures will be more extreme with longer heat waves, higher peaks of heat, and less difference in temperatures between day and night. Unpredictable and extreme weather events will be more frequent with water bombs, hurricanes and floods occurring regularly in places that were never exposed to these types of events before. The risk of fires will increase. We may have new insects and pests invading our habitats. In most regions there will be a shift in our relationship with water. Some areas will have water shortages, where others will experience flooding. Coastal cities will feel some degree of sea rise with consequences on residential and agricultural areas. The extent and severity of these changes depends on the level of intervention that occurs in the next few years.

As the years go by, we can expect some measures to mitigate or adapt to the changing conditions by governments and local authorities, meaning that we may see a range of different regulations being introduced. From a decrease in the use of fossil fuels for energy, to increasingly strict laws on plastic materials and waste in general. There may be incentives to transform buildings to ensure better insulation, green roofs, autonomous solar energy production and water storage. Carbon taxes on travel, transport and manufacturing may also affect the cost or availability of some goods and experiences we take for granted today.

Independently from how societies, governments and politics will react to these changes, and whether actions will be taken to transform societies for the better to tackle global warming, the change will be present and most likely shape some of our daily practices and material culture. New products will emerge as new living conditions and new practices are developed, which in turn will drive new services.

Designing life at home in new climate conditions means conceiving products and service systems destined to exist in a physical environment with changing conditions (such as greater heat and instability), but also a social environment with transformed daily practices due to changing regulations in mobility or energy. Attitudes may also change regarding the use of certain materials, waste or plant based diets. These changes may well affect all aspects of our daily life, and life at home, whether directly or indirectly.

CREDITS

Professors:

Valentina Auricchio

Stefana Broadbent

Marta Corubolo

Fabio Di Liberto

Ilkka Suppanen

Course tutors:

Corina Macnovit

Vanessa Monna

An exhibition curated by:

Nina Fois

Giacomo Rho

Anna Riti

Hannah Roche

Emma Teli

Virginia Luisa Volontè

Chenfan Zhang

Students:

Sara Airoldi, Andrés Alfonso Hernàndez Alzate, Mariana Romero Arango, Masoumeh Asadi, Mehrdad Atariani, Amirmohammad Azizi, Giorgia Bartolomeo, Beril Beden, Tommaso Bernardi, Beatriz Bonilla Berrocal, Arianna Bosio, Federico Bossi, Luiza Braga, Anna Buccarelli, Brenda Cadena, Eleonora Campana, Juliana dos Santos Netto Campos, Martina Carozza, Alessandro Ceccato, Yuzhi Chen, Chuhan Cheng, Naiyi Chia, Angela Corrado, Carolina De Maria, Valentina Facoetti, Beatrice Feltracco, Nina Fois, Marcella Gadotti, Mariah Madureira Giacchetta, Ismael Godinez, Alessandro Grati, Nicolàs Salom Guzmàn, Bin He, Jerome Hompes, Giulia Ianes, Elena Iannella, Marcello Iudice, Le Jiaqi, Ryohei Kawagishi, Alessia Kayalibay, So Jeong Kim, Isadora Koike, Orçun Kumova, Xiayu Li, Xiaoyong Liug, Francisca Lucas, Zhengang Lou, Wen Luo, Davide Macchi, Francesca Masnaghetti, Arianna Meroni, Riccardo Orlando Miele, Giacomo Montefalcone, Ettore Mordenti, Hiroki Morimoto, Sophia Motta, Madina Ómirbekova, Alessia Orizio, Federica Parolisi, Anvith Patil, Claudia Pelosi, Federica Piazzi, Jéssica Pinto, Martina Platini, Adellia Pranindita, Yao Qiushun, Xingyu Quan, Yasmina Rasamny, Giacomo Rho, Anika Rieth, Anna Riti, Hannah Roche, Alessandra Rota, Candela Piancatelli Ruiz, Dumitru Samson, Vittoria Scatiggio, Nardin Shafik, Valeria Soffientini, Angela Stellaccio, Siyu Tang, Emma Teli, Agustina Toderi, Brenda Villafana, Virginia Luisa Volontè, Pan Shin Wan, Qiuyue Wang, Lai Xiaoting, Selin Yilmaz, Banghan Yin, Qiu Yu, Chenfan Zhang.

Arianna Saini