Published on : Thursday, January 9, 2014
A glance into textile living of the future: the 2014 Management Report themed ‘Conceptual Living’ will be published exclusively and just in time for Heimtextil, the International Trade Fair for Home and Contract Textiles, that will take place from 8 to 11 January 2014. “People increasingly design their living environments to match the stage of life they are in as well as to meet their situational needs and attitudes. The 2014 Management Report compiles the results of a study on this trend and its impact on the textile industry, providing key impetus for innovative developments,” says Olaf Schmidt, Vice President Textiles & Textile Technologies. As in the past, for the new Management Report, Heimtextil again cooperated with Zukunftsinstitut, one of the leading think tanks for trend and future research in Europe.
Living in a society of multiple options and mobility increasingly leads people to adjust their furnishings to their individual lifestyles. Rigid room patterns are replaced by flexible zones. A living room, for example, can double as an office or a reception area during the day. In the same way that the trend towards ‘Conceptual Living’ is defining the traditional furnishings and room layouts, living will adapt to people’s continuous wish for change and flexibility.
Enabling people to redesign their furnishings at shorter and shorter intervals, reconfiguration is the key principle of ‘Conceptual Living’. Home design of the future will accommodate the needs of fast-paced lifestyles rather than underline the status of objects passed down from generations. Furnishing textiles will ensure increasingly flexible space, functionality and identity. For the survey, more than 70 percent of the respondents in Germany and Italy and 65 percent of those in Russia stated that home textiles can give a room a completely new look quickly.
To enable us to reconfigure our homes more frequently and without much ado, furnishings must be easy to use and allow for intuitive, quick combination of items without compromisiong quality and attractiveness. More and more people regard furnishings as “technical systems” that feature ease of use and intelligent functionality. Rather than defining rooms, simplexity ensures latitude for architecture and interior design.
Approximately 50 percent of consumers in Germany and about 70 percent of those in Italy and Russia would like to see homes designed to be more flexible. But how can this be achieved for textile furnishings? One solution is the plug-and-play principle that enables consumers to replace their upholstery easily and to make maximum use of little living space.
Tags: Heimtextil, international trade fair, Olaf Schmidt, Textiles & Textile Technologies
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