FranklinTill explores city futures and interior trends at Heimtextil 2018

Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities and, according to UN statistics, most of the other half will have moved in by the end of the century. If urban migration continues at its current rate, by 2030 the world will be home to 41 megacities, each with populations of more than 10 million, and some, such as Tokyo will hold more than 40 million. The human world will be entirely transformed; and the implications for our design environment are immense.

The inexorable trend towards the complete urbanisation of human society informs every facet of FranklinTill’s vision for the Heimtextil trade fair this January, when around 69,000 designers, buyers, brand managers, manufacturers, merchandisers and textile/interior influencers will descend on Messe Frankfurt in the hope of garnering design insights and strategic guidance on the long- and short-term trends in consumer behaviour.

Taking ‘The Future is Urban’ as the starting point for both the fair’s ‘Theme Park’ trend exhibition and its accompanying book, FranklinTill is exploring the future of our city spaces through two strands: the macro trends that will increasingly determine our lifestyles and environments in the decades ahead, and the micro trends in colour and spatial design that will become manifest in the coming seasons.

Spread between nine distinct pavilions and installations, the exhibition is designed to be an immersive and multi-sensory celebration of ideas, with a varied group of international designers commissioned to create bespoke works exploring the show’s themes or physically working and interactively demonstrating their ideas on site. As they explore the exhibition visitors will be met with visual inspiration, thought-provoking, impactful insights into the evolving cityscape and, ideally, a vision for a more sustainable design future.