Skip to content

My A-Z of Themes

My A to Z of Themes

Whether for a keynote, a salon, a discussion, an interview or an article – all these themes can be picked and mixed for everything from a conference to a consulting or a magazine. If you can’t find what your are looking for or have any questions, mail oona@strathern.eu.

A:

Architecture: How will we design and build in the future? What new methods, materials and new energy systems will we need? From concrete to wood and modular or mass produced to 3D, it’s about best practice architecture and how architects planners and designers can best serve the needs of the big social demographic changes in our society?

B:

Bathroom: Design, materials, investment and function: the evolution of the bathroom from a small unloved sanitary space to the dominant boudoir style room of the future. Today the bathroom is moving from a neglected space to one of the most celebrated and decorated rooms not just in the home but in hotels.

C:

Co-culture: From co-living to co-working and co-mobility, we are seeing many new forms of cooperation and community in all reaches of society. Corona has highlighted the need of a co-immunity of the community – an economically and socially robust neighbourhood where all your services and needs can be met. Best practice co-culture examples from around the world from female silver living communities to shared e-mobility.

D:

Design: what is important in design today and tomorrow? We Beautiful home syndrome and how the new design democracy is impacting on architecture and our homes. Also D for Digitalisation (see S for Smart).

E:

Ecology and energy: We are moving away from the old mindset of green ecology to a new blue ecology where it is about abundance rather than scarcity, about courage rather than guilt, and new design and building systems that embrace intelligent renewal. Homes in the future as an integral part of a smart energy grid, producing and storing energy.

F:

Female perspective: Is there really such a thing as female perspective? The exploration of feminism beyond feminism, the view on female forces that is beyond cliche, and towards an understanding of what can we learn from the female perspective on our cities, architecture, design, and home.

G:

Green: The greening of our cities, our homes and our architecture.
From agri-tecture to the new green deal in our cities and our homes. City planners and architects are transforming the urban landscape from a concrete jungle to an urban forest. As Danish Landscape architect Torben Schønherr once said “Buildings are just a detail”.

H:

Hero Materials: From cradle to cradle building to vegan interior design, we are seeing a shift to so-called hero materials in building, home and hotel design. From the Hilton Vegan Suite and the Scottish Vegan hotel, to sustainable materials.

I:

Interior Design: The idea of what we want from a home has evolved and adapted to our changing lifestyles and biographies – a look at everything from design to flexible floorpans to the bathroom salon and the kitchen-hub.

J:

Juggle: Thinking about the future can be like juggling. You can decide which of the 12 megatrends and trends you want to juggle with (or maybe all of them) – there are ones which will rise up to the challenge for your branch, some which may fall down in importance, and others which may just float about in the middle. Either way they are all part of a co-dependant system where all play a role.

K:

Kitchen: The kitchen has evolved from a lonely woman’s workplace to a multifunctional stage. Will robots be making our breakfast, and how does the multi generational co-living kitchen of the future look? What do we need to think about when we are designing smart or mindful kitchen of the future?

L:

Lifestyle: From Latte Macchiato families to the Baby Boomer Hipsters, Nomadic Digital Creatives and the Forever Youngsters. Explore a range of lifestyles and see how they live, work and love.

M:

Modular, Micro and Mass Produced: The three big trends in the building industry that have the potential to change the way we build live and work. From the challenges of our shrinking living spaces, to the flexible individualised modular developments.

N:

Neuro Architecture: Winston Churchill once said, “We form our buildings and then they form us.” We are learning ever more about the effects of architecture design and materials on our wellbeing.

O:

Online, Offline or Omline: How are we navigating the digital world, and can we find a balance in our homes, work and personal lives?

P:

Pre-crafted: Another more marketing friendly word for mass produced. An old technique that has been revived and modernised thanks to technology and one of the ways we can build smarter, quicker and more ecological in the future.

Q:

Quarantine: Quarantine has given us a new perspective on our lives. How can the Corona pandemic change our relationship to our homes, our work and our cities?

R:

Robots: Robots are coming. Or maybe not. Which jobs are really threatened, what can we expect from the robot of the future in our homes, and why we will never have “sex robots”.

S:

Smart: Smart this and smart that. Smart homes, apps and cites are promising a connected future: but do they live up to their promises, and will they actually make our lives better or easier? Is the countertrend Mindfulness – the new buzz word after the wellness wave? But what does it mean for how we will live and is it an antidote to our increasingly connected digitalised world?

T:

Trends and megatrends: There are many levels of trends – from the littlest short-term trends to the big megatrends. These are, the social demographic changes that affect how we will live, work and love, and they are not linear but recursive. They create disruption and out of that new trends are formed. Thinking about the future means to look at the way they evolve, and the way they are interconnected.

U:

Urbanisation: From urban acupuncture to the new breed of successful mayors who are leading the way with new strategies for dealing with the challenges of the urban future. How will we face the challenges of living, working and mobility in the city of the future.

V:

Vertical Village: The cities of the future will be more about community, where we can bring the social advantages for the countryside village into the city. Where once we communicated with people over the garden fence, today we meet and build neighbourly (and possibly other) relationships via well designed balconies.

W:

We-volution: We-volution is the counter-trend to the Me-volution of individualism. As we move from a “me” to a “we” culture how does this impact on our living spaces, our cities and our home and work and relationships?

X:

X- Events: These are the events that drastically change our lives. So how has the Corona crisis changed how we think about how we want to live? What can we do to create an economic, spatial and social co-immunity for the city and countryside of the future?

Y:

Generation X, Y, Z: What will the needs and demands of the young generation be in the years to come? How and where will they live?

Z:

ZUKUNFT: In the words of Psychiatrist Stephen Grosz, “The future is not some place we are going to, but an idea in our mind now. It is something that we are creating, that in turn creates us”. Let’s create it together.