November 14, 2018 /Experience
Home Is Where The People Are
It’s becoming increasingly apparent that consumers are choosing products and pathways based on emotion.
We desire our passions to become our jobs, our friends to become our family and our brands to be our life gurus. In our Kinship post we outlined how the notion of family and home is developing to revolve around ideologies and values. At the core of this, we consider how Empathetic Design has affected the past and how it will continue to connect the future.
In the UK we can trace empathetic design all the way back to chocolate. In 1847, George Cadbury created a village that entailed quality homes and open green spaces so industrial workers could thrive at home. He created a community full of inclusivity, which nurtured relationships and catered to many diverse needs. In short, he dared to redefine what home could mean for the working class. The Future Homes exhibit at The Design Museum London, explores this and how pioneering design will shape the future of ‘home’.
Co-living is no new concept, with many eastern communities living in houses that cater to entire families, expanding to include growing generations. The design and function reflects how they live; spacious rooms for meals, communal kitchens and smaller rooms for sleeping. There has been a resurgence in creating co-living spaces in the western world, part of a larger movement to help up connect to each other.
Stokeworks in Portugal, is a co-living space that caters to the popularised nomadic movement. It’s built around the idea that home doesn’t necessarily mean a singular physical space and empowers the endless wanderer connect to others who share the same values.
Intentional neighbourhoods are being pursued more widely as people seek community. With 9 million people in the UK suffering from loneliness, social neighbourhoods bridge generational, religious and cultural gaps creating a nucleus of sustainability throughout a city. Projects such as Nordbahnhofgelände in Vienna, illustrate how effective sustainable urban living can be. The project was centered and designed around the community, with every person actively participating in the development, ensuring optimal results.
Key Takeaways
- When looking into how design will enable future connection, consider how to unite diversity in neighbourhoods to promote cultural understanding. Encourage togetherness rather than further political gaps.
- Facilitating connection at a functional and practical levels will be a necessity in future city design, in order to ensure sustainability.
