Oona Strathern Author & Trend Consultant

Speeches

How (not) to build a Future House / Wie man (k)ein Zukunftshaus baut

Once upon a time we decided to build a future house. Thanks to our work we had hundreds of ideas and information at our fingertips. The Future Evolution House was to be a blueprint for living in the future. It would learn from the history of modernity, embrace new energy trends, accomodate the changing roles of men and women in the home as well as experiment with new materials and technologies. This talk looks at what happens when the future meets the present. It looks at what modern architecture tells us about how we live (and how we think we want to live), and reveals the possible and the probable for living in the future.

Mit einem „Future Evolution House” eine Blaupause für ein innovatives Wohnmodell schaffen – dieses Ziel verfolgten wir als wir 2007 beschlossen, ein Zukunftshaus zu bauen. Seit der Fertigstellung im Jahr 2010 steht das Haus in einem spannungsvollen Dialog mit der Geschichte der Moderne, neuen Energie-Trends, innovativen Technologien und Materialien. Vor allem aber beleuchtet das „Future Evolution House” die sich wandelnden Rollen von Mann und Frau in einem gemischten home/work space.

The History of the Future

I give talks about the history of the future inspired by the years of research for my book and more than a decade of working in the field of futurism. A rich and varied topic, the history of the future can be talked about and discussed from many different angles. There is for example a more academic approach that takes a look at the methods that have developed over the years, and how they have been employed by governments, companies and individuals to meet various ends. Or one can take a more entertaining look at the history of futurism from a “lighter” perspective – the foibles and fantasies of all the weird and wonderful people who tried to make predictions:

The history of predicting the future is the fascinating story of the most interesting, important and influential futurists over the years, and how their methods, mistakes and successes can help future thinking today.

From Delphi’s virgin visionaries, to pop futurists, science fiction writers, trend gurus and evolutionary experts, I show how futurism developed into a real and respectable discipline and how it has branched out to adapt to the changing needs and greeds of civilization.

In trying to predict how we would live, work and even love, some of these futurists were spectacularly right, some were embarrassingly and hilariously wrong, and some really gave the future a run for its money.

• Which are the key lessons to learn from the world’s first and most successful future prediction business, the Delphi Oracle?
• Who were (and are) the key movers and shakers in the business of predicting the future, what can we learn from them, their methods and their mindsets?
• What does it take to become a great future thinker and why you should beware of the “futurists monkey trap”?
• From scenarios and game theory to media scanning and Trendtrekking. How forecasting methods have developed over the years, and which ones can we rely on?

Speech approx 45 minutes long, including discussion and an illustrated Keynote presentation.

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