Wired Design at ICFF 2012

I'm Alan Rapp with Wired Design at

the 24th International Contemporary Furniture Fair

in New York.

(electronic music)

This year more than 500 exhibitors

from global manufacturers, to small studios making

their debut are converging to present

their visions for contemporary design.

We're in the booth of Virginia Tech School

of Architecture and Design who are developing

a house of the future prototype with

interior modular wall systems and a variety

of projects that are representing new kinds of dynamic

skins and building facades.

The panels back here are from

a previous Solar Decathlon winning project

and these are all angled so that depending on

whether you're in winter or summer months,

you've got more light coming in or less.

An on-site weather station is going to send data

to these control systems and that's what's gonna make

for real optimization, cross ventilation,

privacy control, insulation

and heat retention are all combined with this data system.

So the house of the future actually is going to have robots.

But they're not gonna be like servants,

they're gonna be more integrated into the structures

and the skin of the building itself.

(upbeat electronic music)

The forms and the projects in your booth

really caught my eye, what are we looking at here?

So what you're looking at is our lighting collection.

Which is all one of a kind, generative, 3D printed lamps.

So what our company Nervous System does is we really write

software that's based on scientific research of how

different types of patterns form in nature.

And then we use that to create one of a kind designs.

So 3D printing lets us make every piece unique,

since it's not molded we can take advantage

of generative techniques and programming

to create complex geometry that you couldn't make otherwise.

[Alan] In the future we're going to see a lot more

of these intersections between engineering, computing,

rapid prototyping, and design.

(upbeat electronic music)

Universal Kinetic Inc. has developed this modular system

which at first glance looks like a mechanical futon.

But it's really a lot more sophisticated than that.

Their research is looking into the way that

our demographic is going to be ageing

and wanna be ageing more onsite at home.

So this is a system which can have you upright,

also extend as a bed but some of the more sophisticated

notions are here in the control systems.

This haptic system, this grip, this smart grip

it responds to the force of your squeeze.

This grip system is going to be able to control

the atmospherics as well as the television itself.

Eventually the whole mechanics of the bed.

(electronic music)

So this environment is a pavilion made

entirely out of paper.

A 12 foot high pavilion made of paper fans

by Muller Designs.

Good for exhibition halls but also interior systems,

partitions, this table, the stools that I'm sitting on

are good for up to 60 pounds per 12 linear inches.

So as we're looking for more sanctuaries

in the urban environment we have this material

that gives off this very calming effect

and you can create an entirely soothing experience from.

(upbeat indie rock music)

These were a few glimpses from the 2012 ICFF.

This just might be what the house of the future looks like.

(upbeat indie rock music)