LSN : News : A town that produces energy from data

LS:N Global’s Luxury Futures Forum charts the era of Uneasy Affluence

Guestlist 2030 film by The Future Laboratory

London – The event, hosted at Corinthia Hotel London, covered the latest shifts disrupting the luxury and hospitality markets, from the rise of ‘bundled buys’ in high-end clothing to the untapped potential of the luxury sports fan demographic and the growing demand for lab-grown diamonds.

A range of leading industry speakers, including Vanessa Jacobs, founder of The Restory, and Oliver Williams, co-founder of consultancy WealthInsight, shared their expertise on today’s luxury consumer mindsets, while LS:N Global deputy foresight editor Kathryn Bishop presented our latest macrotrend, Uneasy Affluence, outlining how a collective backlash against ostentatious spending is fuelling new anxiety among high-net-worth individuals.

Read the full Uneasy Affluence macro here, or explore our luxury vertical for more insight into the latest developments in the industry.

Paradise Now offers visitors a 30-minute recharge

Paradise Now by Bompas & Parr at Eccleston Yards, London

London – Hosted at the recently opened dining and co-working destination Eccleston Yards and programmed by experience designers Bompas & Parr, Paradise now will let visitors experience an array of the latest wellness trends. ‘This project is the culmination of a year of research into how an architectural space can give you the blissed out feeling of a full holiday in under an hour,’ explain Sam Bompas and Harry Parr.

The event will span everything from biohacking to Nootropics, urban nature bathing and touchscreen chromo-therapy. Particular highlights include a pink mist waterfall enriched with energising mineral and herbal extracts, ‘haptic dunes’ that infuse meditators with nutrients from vitamin enriched pebbles, and an ‘electrolyte aqua bar’ that will filter London’s rain through columns filled with geological layers derived from seven different continents.

For more on how the placemaking and wellness industries are colliding to create new destinations that place human health as a central priority, read about In-tune Architecture in our Certified Wellness macrotrend.

A town that produces energy from data

The Spark by Snohetta

Norway – Now under construction near Bergen, the new town of Lyseparken will include a data centre whose excess heat will be redirected to warm surrounding businesses. ‘Our first goal was to make a self-sufficient area by using local, renewable resources,’ Fredrik Seliussen, project lead for the local municipality of Os, told Fast Company. ‘After we had theoretically solved this…we decided to go further to the next level. The goal was not to be carbon neutral–but it might be the result of our business model.’

An increasingly common site across the globe, such centres require huge amounts of electricity to cool their massed ranks of servers, the heat from which is usually simply vented into the atmosphere. Instead of using a traditional fanned-based cooling system, the Lyseparken centre will use liquid to transfer heat to nearby businesses, where it will be piped through the floor. The buildings that require the most heat will be located closest to the centre.

To discover the latest innovations in sustainable energy, read our recent Renewable Energy market.

Beauty gets a co-working makeover

Go Today Shaire Salon

Tokyo – While most industries have already succumbed to the co-working revolution, the beauty sector has yet to find a workable model. This is a surprise, given how many independent practitioners work in this space and the constant need to find locations that not only have all the requisite facilities, but can also adapt to flexible freelance working schedules.

The Go Today Shaire Salon – designed by Tokyo native Canoma – is one of the first to tackle this friction point head on, offering hair stylists a fully serviced booth without the need to pay the high cost of renting a chair from an established salon. The venue has 12 booths, six shampoo stations, makeup seats and a staff lounge.

‘There is an excessive supply of beauty salons here, which results in an increased risk for starting a business,’ Shinsuke Yokoyama, Canoma’s chief designer, tells Frame. ‘This project was planned with the belief that there is a demand for a good environment that enables communication between similarly active beauticians at a low cost through sharing salons.’

To see more examples of brands currently redefining the hair salon, read our dedicated listicle.

Amazon becomes the go-to portal for product search

Consumers are now going directly to Amazon to begin their product search, as opposed to Google. This is an exact reversal of the stats from three years ago according to digital intelligence platform Jumpshot. The eCommerce giant has an 80% share in many categories, meaning that it is reaching limits in terms of further growth. Those in which it still has room to extend its dominance include women's clothing (42%) and furniture (47%).

To learn how Amazon is also winning the battle for voice commerce, read our Voice Retail market.

Thought-starter: Is certification the answer to fashion’s ethical issues?

Fashion Revolution Zine

The rise of ethical fashion is positive – but are the certificates designed to ratify, support and promote brands' claims really worth it? Olivia Pinnock, founder of The Fashion Debates, takes a closer look.

Fashion labels becoming more sustainable is undoubtedly a positive thing. Yet the challenge is more than just rethinking supply chains, it’s also convincing cynical consumers that they are actually doing good.

It’s here that certification becomes an appealing option for brands to communicate the complex topic of ethics in a succinct and visual way. But certificates come with their own complex issues, too. Firstly, while verification of a brand’s practices and the marketing of certification can be beneficial, ethical certification should also challenge the industry and be a tool to help companies improve their standards.

From a consumer perspective, the fragmentation of issues within the ethical fashion world can also be confusing and overwhelming.

Marketing fashion is a unique discipline with a vast number of thought processes and decisions taking place in consumers’ minds before they make a purchase. When it comes to making a more sustainable future for the fashion industry, selling clothing and accessories will demand a multi-layered approach that can’t be solved by certificates alone.

Read the full opinion piece here.