Home Futures exhibition, Design Museum

There’s no place like home. That’s certainly true when it comes to the homes on display at the Home Futures Design Museum exhibition. Home Futures compares and contrasts 20^th-Century prototypes with modern-day innovations to see whether yesterday’s dreams have become today’s reality.

The exhibition explores the past, present and future of our domestic living spaces through six principal themes: Living smart, Living on the move, Living autonomously, Living with less, Living with others, and Domestic Arcadia. By exploring these topics, the exhibition considers whether or not we are living as the pioneers of the past predicted.

Installation view: Home Futures Exhibition, Design Museum

Highlight works on display include original furniture from the Smithson’s House of the Future. Designed by British architectural power couple Allison and Peter Smithson in the 1950s, the house was proposed as an ideal living space for the partners of the future. There will also be footage from a film that General Motors produced, also in the 1950s, to showcase the 'kitchen of tomorrow'.

As well as looking back to the homes that never were, the exhibition hosts a brave prediction for what the homes of the future could be, with ‘One Shared House 2030’ serving as a prime example. This collaborative research project between New York design studio Anton & Irene and the IKEA-funded future living lab, SPACE10, aims to capture the ideal co-living space of 2030.

See it before it travels to the IKEA Museum in Älmhult, Sweden this spring.