LSN : News : Thought-starter: Are cities still the best place for creatives?

An entirely digital clothing collection for humans and avatars

adDRESS The Future in collaboration with PERL.WWW, Carlings

adDRESS The Future in collaboration with PERL.WWW by Carlings

adDRESS The Future by Carlings in collaboration with PERL.WWW

Norway – Retailer Carlings has partnered with digital influencer Perl.www to create a fashion collection that expresses creativity without harming the environment.

To create the Neo-Ex collection, which only exists digitally, Carlings worked with digital tailors and Perl.www, a CGI model who found fame on Instagram. Shoppers can browse the brand’s 19-piece collection online and have a piece of their choice digitally fitted to a photo of themselves by a group of 3D designers for up to $20 (£15.50, €17.50), allowing them to share the piece on social media. Carlings is also using Neo-EX to raise awareness of water consumption in real-life fashion manufacturing, with proceeds from the collection's sales being donated to WaterAid.

The digital collection exists as a reaction to the detrimental impact of fast fashion on the environment, which is being exacerbated by Instagram’s fleeting influencer culture. With many consumers already buying fashion simply to share across their digital platforms, Carlings believes that the future of personal expression will be achieved by buying Immaterial Fashion.

The Design Museum explores the future of the home

Home Futures exhibition at the Design Museum, London

London – Home Futures, a new exhibition at the Design Museum, traces the social and technological advances that have driven change in the home.

From 20^thcentury prototypes to the latest innovations in domestic living, the show includes more than 150 objects displayed in an immersive environment designed by SO-IL architects. Contemporary shifts, such as connected devices and the sharing economy, are explored alongside historical notions of mechanised and compact living spaces. Among the exhibits is a new commission of open-source, modular furniture produced in collaboration with Belgian design studio OpenStructures.

The exhibition, which has been created in partnership with the IKEA Museum, is organised around five different themes: Living Smart, Living on the Move, Living Autonomously, Living with Less and Living with Others. Privacy, open-source design, nomadic lifestyles and micro-living solutions are among the concepts challenging ideas about the future of the home – developments also tracked in our recent Far Futures mini-series Future Homes.

Unwanted clothes can be turned into building materials

Australia – A team of researchers have found a way to repurpose cheap garments into durable building materials.

The team, led by Veena Sahajwalla at the University of New South Wales, collected a random assortment of clothing from charity bins. They then manually removed fastenings such as zips and buttons, before passing the leftover fabrics – including cotton, polyester and nylon – through a fine-grain shredder. The resulting fleece was treated with a chemical to help the fibres stick together, and then compressed with heat to create solid panels.

After testing the panels, the team found them to be strong, water-resistant and minimally flammable. With textures and colours that resemble wood, ceramic or stone, the panels are suitable for use as interior finishes such as floor tiles or wall panels.

Born from such research, designers are repurposing waste materials such as clothing or plastic in order to implement Whole-system Thinking into their business.

Panels made from unwanted clothes by Veena Sahajwalla, University of New South Wales, Australia

A new hotel uses colour to influence guests’ moods

Angad Arts Hotel, photography by Alise OBrien, Missouri

St. Louis – The Angad Arts Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, lets guests choose their room based on the mood-altering effects of different colour schemes.

The 146-room hotel offers bedrooms decorated exclusively in four shades: yellow for happiness, blue for tranquillity, red for passion and green for rejuvenation. After selecting their room size, guests can choose their colour preference either when booking or when checking in. Each room also features art installations that correspond with their assigned mood, creating a multi-sensory hospitality experience based on the principles colour therapy.

‘We realised the experience of being in a room that’s all blue or all red is going to have a different effect on the guest,’ says Steve Smith, CEO and founder of Lawrence Group, the hotel’s developer. ‘If we were going to saturate the rooms with colour, why not promote the emotions?’

For more ways brands can emotionally connect with consumers, subscribers can revisit our E-motional Economy macrotrend.

Stat: Office layouts are impacting US worker health

Office layouts could be driving employees away from the workplace, according to a survey of 4,000 American employees by YouGov and Room. In particular, this is the case for open-plan layouts, which are not fostering productivity, collaboration and enjoyment as originally intended by their designers – some 16% of respondents felt their overall quality of health has declined in open-plan offices.

Rather than sharing their space with others, the survey found that private workspaces are the optimal choice for workers. When employees were asked what they would give up for a private workspace, 13% said their end-of-year bonuses and 27% said access to a window or natural light.

To see how businesses can create office design that better serves their workforce, read our microtrend Work Zones.

Thought-starter: Are cities still the best place for creatives?

What if fresh, original thinking was no longer the preserve of a megacity? Karen Rosenkranz, trend forecaster and author of City Quitters, examines what's driving creatives to leave urban constraints behind.

Until recently, moving to the countryside was a step reserved for the middle-aged craving a slower life and a place where their offspring could grow up surrounded by nature.

Not anymore. As they become denser and more congested, the pressure on cities and their inhabitants is growing. For creatives and entrepreneurs, ‘making it’ in the city is getting harder and harder. Many are questioning whether the city really is the best environment to establish a sustainable creative practice.

Meanwhile, rural areas and small towns have huge potential to become hubs for innovation, creativity and experimentation. As a result, communities that can attract creative thinkers will benefit, with initiatives that connect creative newcomers with local communities, creating new platforms for exchange and collaboration.

Read the full opinion piece here.