Biography
I was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1963, and grew up in Notting Hill, London.
My interest in visions for the future started early with extensive childhood travels including
a pioneering overland trip in a Landrover to India in 1965 to visit Le Corbusier’s “gift
to the future”, Chandigarh and the Taj Mahal. I went to London’s notorious Holland
Park Comprehensive School, the first purpose built “forward thinking” comprehensive.
In 1985 I graduated with BA Hons in Human Geography from Bristol University where my
dissertation was on the futurist architect and visionary Le Corbusier, entitled, “Le
Corbusier: Utopian or Optimist?”
Following a career in print journalism for many different publications including Arts
Review and The Observer newspaper, I became a writer / researcher / assistant
producer for Central Observer Television – working on the pioneering show “Go
For Green”,
a lively weekly environmental news programme.
Later as a trend consultant for Trendbüro in Hamburg I worked for companies such
as Beiersdorf, Unilever, and Philip Morris, reporting mainly on lifestyle trends ranging
from packaging and philosophy to the role of women and men in society and the changing
image of beauty. For many years I also wrote a quarterly study on the future of work for
the Deutsche Bank. Since I moved to Vienna in 1999 and established the Zukunftsinstitut
Horx here, I have consulted Libro on trends from London, Meinl on an international coffee
bar concept with top designer Tom Dixon, and worked as a consultant on the lifestyle drink
VERY. I am also an advisor and consultant to the annual European Futurists
Conference in
Lucerne (www.european-futurists.org)
I live with my futurist husband Matthias Horx and our two bilingual sons, Tristan and
Julian whose visions of the future focus at the moment on “sweets growing on
trees” and “homework writing machines”.