Looking to the Future of the Living Room

The furniture arrangement of our living rooms today display a predisposition to the semi-circular arrangement of our forefathers. Seating placed around an open hearth is now replicated in our sofas and occasional chairs surrounding a central coffee table. Sofas and loveseats have replaced tree logs and slabs while tree stumps or small boulders now take the familiar form of ottomans or easy chairs.

Whether this type of living room arrangement will continue in the future is now being debated. With population levels in urban areas on the rise, it is expected that residences will become smaller and more multi-functional. In response to this, a space architect at LIQUIFIER Systems Group in Vienna, Barbara Imhof, says that furniture that is more transformable with a broader range of functions will be in demand. Imhof expects that, in the future, technology will be integrated with furniture so that furniture becomes more ergonomically responsive and even provides biofeedback. Josh Owen, Chair of Rochester Institute of Technology's Industrial Design program agrees, saying that in the next 1000 years, we will have great difficulty separating ourselves from the animate objects around us.

Source: Forbes