As the water levels rise, and scientists turn to the creatures of the deep seeking solutions to today’s health problems, trend analyst Victoria Redshaw from forecasting agency Scarlet Opus explores The Abyss, explaining how fluid shapes and deep blues are set to inform the furniture of tomorrow …
Over the past few seasons we have talked about consumers’ ever-increasing awareness of global warming, and the degree to which their concerns about the impact we have as human beings on the environment has intensified. Much of this concern focuses on issues associated with water.
It seems that water will be both the cause of and solution to many problems in the future. A few examples …
Scientists around the world are now predicting that at current melting rates, Arctic Sea ice will have all but disappeared by the end of summer 2012, much earlier than previous predictions indicated. In connection with this, the Korean Expo theme for 2012 is The Living Ocean and Coast, focusing on the effect of rising sea levels on cityscapes and how coastal cities might cope with this. The expo will explore possible solutions through architectural concept designs.
In a similar vein, landscape architect Kate Orff has put forward a proposal to simultaneously clean up New York City’s polluted Gowanus Canal and protect the city from rising sea levels and storm surges by creating an Oyster-tecture Ecosystem, using oysters as natural pollutant filters.
We also see cell mortality scientists looking to sea creatures for answers – having discovered an immortal jellyfish, Turritopsis Nutricula, they are now conducting studies to learn how the jellyfish cells could be applied to human beings, thereby allowing people to live much longer in the future.
In a different line of research, scientists are developing a new military tank that uses e-ink and sensors to project the immediate environment onto its shell, allowing the tank to change, in real-time, with its surroundings – just like many deep sea creature do.
“Many creatives are increasingly developing designs influenced by sea creatures such as jellyfish, sea anemones and urchins”
As trend forecasters we continue to see a huge amount of scientific development with inspiration and solutions coming from the sea, which leads us to wonder – what lies beneath?
The deep sea provides the inspiration for an underwater trend for interiors, and during the spring/summer of 2012 we are invited to explore the mysterious depths below the surface of the world’s oceans – into the unknown.
This fascinating world will also be the inspiration behind the next Avatar film, as James Cameron plans to shoot footage seven miles underwater, the deepest location on earth. And many creatives are increasingly developing designs influenced by sea creatures such as jellyfish, sea anemones and urchins, scorpion fish, and even coral reefs and starfish textures – creatures that can change colour, change pattern and light up!
Florence Jaffrain’s Belly Love sensorial sofa epitomises this trend. Inspired by Sarcophyton Elegans, a type of soft coral found in the Indian Ocean, its hugging form is made of foam and upholstered in a photoluminescent sensory fabric which allows it to gently glow in the dark. The sensory pleasure does not stop there – the sofa also ‘breathes’ with a subtle in and out motion, and releases fragrance into the air.
Karim Rashid’s Infinity Couch, although not as sensorially all-encompassing, is another example of a seating piece with a flowing shape that surrounds the users in a soft and curvaceous form.
Mysterious, inky deep sea shades make up this trend’s colour palette of ultra and aqua marine, darkest purple, sparkling turquoise, translucent jade, and beautiful lapis lazuli. The emergence of lapis blue as a key colour will perhaps be reinforced in part by Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves and Bust painting, on display for the first time ever in the UK at the Tate Modern this year, and also by fashion collections such as Roberto Cavalli’s Spring 2011 Menswear collection, a saturation of head to toe lapis blue!
Francesco Binfaré’s Esse sofa for Edra hits the right colour note with a stunning blue we are expecting to be big in seating next year. If this colour is not currently in your range it is time to consider it.
Iridescent effects, illuminated ultraviolet, mother-of-pearl, coral and neon accents complete the colour palette. The diffused Random 8 chair by Pitaya Design is an interesting example of how to work with translucence, colour and light, bringing many colours together in one piece of furniture successfully, the translucent quality of the chair’s material allowing the colours to spill out across a room and interact with other pieces in the space.
Textures and surface finishes
Texture is key – sea rock, coral-like surfaces, and scorpion- and anemone-inspired textures, as well as rough, uneven outer surfaces, often accompanied by smooth, lustrous surfaces. Also rippling, wave effects and super-slick finishes, and ultra-violet, changeable and shimmering surface finishes.
Patterns
Rorschach-inspired patterns and mirror-repeating digital prints play a big part in this trend – think Alexander McQueen’s final collection – and we also see elements of diffused and ethnic batik prints, coral reef and wave effects and rippling designs for soft furnishings. The Watercolour exhibition at the V&A influences a new wave of watercolour and watermark effect prints, with colours bleeding into one another like wet, abstract graffiti!
Shapes
Be inspired by sea urchins, shells, anemones, scorpion fish, and corals. Wave-inspired, rippling, serpentine pieces feature – all very curvaceous. But get ready for furniture shapes to begin to get more angular and geometric later in 2012 … think converging prisms!
Victoria Redshaw is a leading trend analyst for Scarlet Opus, and is also active through the agency's blog and Twitter account. The trend board for the Abyss is available, along with a full seasonal trend report for interiors, from [email protected] – request the special Furniture News readers’ price.
