Creating contemporary designs using indigenous materials and techniques, imbibing traditional values to design in the current urban environments, reviving traditional crafts to create modern design solutions, using 3D printing technology to generate any kind of product, for interior and architectural design! What is the future of design and what will it bring forth?

Design, and what it embodies, is constantly evolving and changing the perspectives of spaces and the elements that form the spaces and are a part of them.

The first few buildings in the world were created out of necessity and the available natural resources without any technology. Gradually there came a time when scale and embellishments took precedence. Great churches and palaces were made in Greek, Roman and Renaissance styles, to name a few, when designs used mathematics and construction was only in stone and wood. The steel and concrete revolution followed and embellishments became minimal; a movement led by masters like Mies Van Der Rohe and Le Corbusier. Exploration into steel and concrete and modern technology led to forms and spaces that were translated fluidly and abstractly creating all kinds of perceptions.

Today, one can say that design has become globalized with similar styles and forms being seen across the world. Whether this is good or bad can lead to endless debates.

With the past few years seeing a thrust on sustainability older as well as newer materials are being explored in different ways. With the increasing globalization and as a result, homologation of architecture, national identity is under threat and local identities are being lost. The landscape, the site context and the cultural ethos are all being obscured by a blanket of common architectural values across the world.

The future will continue to bring new perceptions. However the important aspect is that the future should bring more contextual architecture and design. Design should belong to a place in a coherent way. It should respond to its context. It should imbibe from the past while incorporating modernity. Design affects our behaviour and in accordance can transform our lives. The future of design lies in its meaningful quotient and in its contextual relevance.