How did the future look?
Radical thinkers and designers of the 20th century imagined our future homes as places where...
A global, invisible network would connect us all
Supersurface was a speculative proposal for a universal grid that would allow people to live without objects or the need to work, in a state of permanent nomadism.
Credit | Superstudio, Supersurface: The Happy Island, 1971. Image: The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence.
We would work from anywhere we wanted
In 1969, years before laptops allowed for work on the go, Hans Hollein proposed a mobile office in the form of a transparent bubble for a nomadic lifestyle. It forecasted the conditions of work and life in an automated, networked world.
Credit | Just Landed. Hans Hollein in his ‘Mobile Office’, 1969. Courtesy of Private Archive Hollein
We would live surrounded by screens
Ugo La Pietra’s Casa Telematica (1983), or the Telematic House, imagined ways in which media and telecommunication will change the homes of the future. This image from early 1980s calls to mind the omnipresence of screens in our contemporary lives. Courtesy of Archivio Ugo La Pietra, Milano. Ugo La Pietra, La Casa Telematica, 1983.
Credit | Courtesy of Archivio Ugo La Pietra, Milano.
Home appliances would be smart and autonomous
The 1950s "Miracle Kitchen" of the future had its own Roomba.
More people would live in cities, in smaller spaces
Joe Colombo's Total Furnishing Unit. A whole house in just 28 square meters!
Credit | Ignazia Favata / Studio Joe Colombo.
Art and design would merge
Iconic red lips sofa, inspired by the original design by Salvador Dalí. Initially a small production company responsible for the most iconic pieces of Italian radical design, Gufram became famous for merging art and design. Studio 65’s Bocca sofa became one of its best known pieces.
Image courtesy of Gufram
Visit the Home Futures to discover how past visions of the future compare with contemporary living. Featuring more than 200 objects and experiences, the exhibition challenges the ways we see our homes and asks if an alternative future is possible.
This is what the press said:
★★★★ Time Out
'Abundant treasures to savour' ★★★★ The Times
‘A lively, illuminating, sometimes enthralling journey through a century’s-worth of aspiration and fantasy’ The Observer
'Unmissable' City AM
'This immersive, vibrant and challenging exhibition truly throws into question how we see and define our constantly evolving social and living situations' Monocle