Welcome to London Im here to explore how new technology is enabling the next revolution in design, from 3D printing, to artificial intelligence to automation Im seeing how new tools can unleash our imagination What if our partner in crime was an AI agent or AI tools, data sets To rethink the products we make, how we make them and what that means for our lives These are 3D printed, made to measure, driven by data points on your face to make something more comfortable, so hopefully, you keep them for longer So again, this is designed based.
on parameters that you set that get generated by a computer And has user input Im Tom Goodwin, a writer and speaker about technology and the changing world, and Im here to meet pioneers, challenging conventions and exploring the boundaries at the edge of design England was home to the industrial revolution In the span of less than 100 years The world went from making things by hand and for individuals to mass production and standardisation Now, armed with an array of new developments, we have the potential to democratise design To once again personalise what we make and most exciting.
of all, to make entirely new products At Layer, were designing a big range of products: modular dividers, eyewear, furniture, smart wearables, backpacks and apparel Benjamin Hubert is the founder and creative director of Layer His design studio combines the latest technologies and innovative materials with human-centred design Coming in its just incredibly inspiring to see this wall of materials here, lots of which look quite space age So what role do materials or new materials take in the design process? Materials are super important for us Whether its the simplest crafted.
material or the most advanced technological one For instance, something like this is made from a pressed hemp material and hemp is like the poster boy for sustainability But it has its qualities, and it is really great from how much energy is used to produce it But equally, you know, we might look at something that is 3D printed and 3D printed from plastic But theres no waste when this is produced, so its not being produced in China, then being shipped back across the world.
This is a really interesting, rubberised 3D print thats made just down the road So thats another way to think about layering sustainability Its not just the end product or the end commodity, its really the journey to get there 3D printing has long been touted as the future of both design and production The idea that anyone can produce anything locally has potentially profound impacts on the global supply chain We could, in theory, download.
designs and print clothes or even our homes, at home But so far, widespread use of 3D printing has been hampered by limitations on what can actually be made and high costs How do you use 3D printing in the design process? We 3D print scale and one-to-one models to look at the form and format of, for instance, a wheelchair But also, we often use it in the manufacturing process So the Go wheelchair is a wheelchair.
that uses a 3D printed seat, which is custom made for every single user They get their body cast and scanned, and then that algorithm, driven by the data points on there, creates a bespoke seat, improving comfort and performance And what does design become? Because in a way, theres maths involved with generating the final design based on these hexagons or pentagons Absolutely, so its algorithm-driven data points So the data points from here, when its 3D scanned, are fed into a piece of software So this uses a grasshopper-based.
piece of software that then generatively develops the right amount of hexagons in the right space, on the right surface area to create the custom seat Is it almost a metaphor for what the future of design could be? Where some parts are systematised, some parts are personalised, some parts are parametric I do think were moving into an era where, democratising the process through technology is becoming possible So the agenda of one designer creating the singular expression of their point of view becomes a little bit less relevant.
Were pulling in What does anyone else think? in a very kind of ethnographic, user-focussedway But also, How can technology help us to design? without having to predefine absolutely everything To what extent do you think you have a responsibility to make technology which is additive rather than something that replaces humanity? Its a very good point, and I think humanising technology, softening it to the extent where it blends in and disappears into your world rather than being the primary focal point all the time, is the big shift in the last 5 to 10 years.
Its not necessarily a status symbol in its own right anymore The days of having a ginormous B&O system on your wall that said Ive got status, Ive got wealth, are, I think, a slightly old fashioned way of looking at it And I think now we need to look at: the value of a service, how much it provides a benefit, and not necessarily.
just inherently the status of the object itself I love the contrast between materials and craft at Layer and their push towards making products where the user is at the centre of the design Perhaps this approach will make more practical, long-lastingproducts, reducing our throwaway culture But can this user-focussed approach work in other areas of design? And what are we looking at exactly?.
A pavilion that was designed by local community members It is made of a discrete building system called Block Type A, and its the same building pieces used for every single part of the pavilion So theres just one type of piece theres reused again and again One type of piece Its like Lego for buildings Molly Claypool is an academic-turned-practitioner working at the intersection of design, technology and community She is developing a modular building.
system and digital design tools, which can be used by local communities to create the spaces and homes they need The future of design always seems to be about 3D printing or prefabrication and new materials But yet, this looks so different I think if you give people the opportunity to be creative, youll be surprised with what is done with the tools that are available to them And so giving people that opportunity to have some agency.
over what they make and whats being created for them, by them, is really, really important And I think it enables people to explore parts of themselves that they didnt know they could have access to And it begins to unlock a deeper set of knowledge, around who they are and what community theyre in and how they might relate to it, when they start to design objects that are really for them, by.
them What do you think about the role between design and technology and creativity? Technologies that are changing design include things like AI, machine learning Things that arent as tangible to people because they arent objects, but theyre actually processes and things that are based on data which is oftentimes hidden behind the products that were using or the products that were interacting with As we saw with many of the products.
at Layer, a key to modern design is the drive towards sustainability The idea of a circular economy is a model which involves sharing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling materials and products as long as possible The system is designed to be circular Its very easy to assemble together and connect together the blocks, and its very easy to disassemble them The idea is that you can change whatever youve designed over time, and its this core idea of truly.
adaptive architecture and truly adaptive spaces When you look at industries that have been transformed by automation Or even any other ways that the industry has changed, something like construction and design seems to have hardly changed at all So why is that? Design in terms of the tools that we use has changed dramatically, but the way we make things is still very much based within the thinking of the industrial revolution A lot of the reason behind this is because there are cultures within those disciplines that are inherited, and thats not to say that thats bad, that that.
inheritance is bad It just needs to be a little bit transformed to be more open, to change Being open to change is hard, though, when new technologies bring with them so much fear and doubt One of the technologies playing a huge role in design is artificial intelligence But many people are still suspicious about its use and possibilities I think design has always been an iterative process The question is who we are.
collaborating with Can we imagine collaborating with artificial intelligence? Anab is a designer, futurist, filmmaker and educator A rare combination of someone able to understand new technologies, but with the imagination to see how they can be used So how do you think artificial intelligence will change design? I think what design can do is show how AI can actually become our collaborator and how as designers, we can use artificial intelligence and its capacity to pull out information from millions of data sets and team that with our own imagination and our intuitive capacities together to create new ideas.
and new possibilities, which we couldnt do otherwise So I see a lot of really exciting potential there So in your work, what kind of future behaviours are you starting to foresee? One key behaviour were starting to foresee is peoples real desire to take part in climate action So are we designing systems that are regenerative in nature? Are we designing systems and products that are circular in nature so that youre not adding to the waste?.
We designed an entire apartment set in 2050 or so, that has been altered because of the climate crisis In this apartment we designed, fully working food computers that were built entirely from discarded and waste materials to create a self-sufficient food system indoors that provides food for the inhabitants Not all the food, but a percentage of the food In an ambition to move toward self-reliance As a designer, I see my role in not just showing what the technology or what the product could do, but what it would mean to live with it, actually.
So what do you think the future of design looks like? We are built on the 20th century model of the industrial revolution, so design has been very closely linked with the idea of developing products that go out into the marketplace that people consume and then throw away Now we are in a position where we cant afford to do that anymore Designers need to do a lot of unlearning and then re-learning new tools through which we can.
design ideas, products, services that are not based around the 20th century model of consumption and consumerism but are pointing the way towards a more regenerative, circular, inclusive future Technologies like AI and 3D printing are changing the core principles of both production and design here in the UK Ive met some of the people spearheading these changes Ive seen how technology can work alongside these designers to make better, more individualised products, and Ive seen how we can help them take on the.main challenge of our time: more sustainable design that protects our planet.
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