From Jetpacks to IKEA — signals of the future

The latest dose of Futures Insights looks at medics using jetpacks, calorie labelling on food, mobility innovation and changing retail.

FLAGSHIP STORE AS GOOD NEIGHBOUR?
I saw intriguing pictures this week of the new IKEA store in Vienna, with the design reminiscent of a ginormous set of the retailer’s shelves.

There is no car parking at this city-centre store, a far cry from the IKEAs of the past. (I remember, 20 years ago, Ben Plowden describing how he tried to visit the newly-opened IKEA in Croydon as a pedestrian and had to run across a dual carriageway and jump over a concrete wall).

This new store responds to the future — a future where fewer people have cars and where climate change heats up our cities. Delivery is by electric vans and e-cargo bikes and 160 trees are integrated into the facades and roof to help cool the micro-climate. The modular frame has flexible use designed-in.

IKEA apparently told the architect that “‘We want to be a good neighbour”. The roof terrace is open to the public 24 hours a day and being a good neighbour is not just for people — there are bug and bee hotels and nesting places for birds.

With a new IKEA flagship store to open in the old Top Shop building on Oxford Street in Autumn 2023, I hope this move to high streets and city-centres continues, and I hope this concept of being a good neighbour — in the widest sense — guides more building in the future.

MOBILITY INNOVATION
The electric scooter company, Bird, has begun a pilot program providing motorized attachments free for wheelchair users in New York.
https://lnkd.in/e5-d3DXs

The motor attaches to existing wheelchairs and should help users get-around, manage slopes, and access more things. This complements other on-demand mobility offers the company has for the disabled.

This initiative looks good: a mobility innovation for those who most need the solutions. When I look around Bristol at the electric scooters zooming round the city centre, the riders are predominantly able-bodied young men. The micro-mobility of the future seems to be designed for the demographic that least needs it — people who could easily walk or cycle. Where are the innovations for old people, the less-able, those living in the outer suburbs badly served by public transport?

This is a problem with a lot of innovation for the future, particularly in digital tech. Too many innovations are by young hipsters for young hipsters; Too many are launched by start-up companies going for the easier, early-adopter market. Too many public bodied are not shaping — or demanding — other types of innovation through their procurement.

So, I’ll watch with interest what Bird is doing. And let’s have more of this type of innovation!

COUNT THOSE CALORIES
Under new UK Government rules larger café and restaurant chains have this week started to display the number of calories on the food and drink they sell.

The aim is to counter the obesity epidemic. It is estimated that overweight and obesity-related conditions are costing the NHS £6.1 billion each year. The costs is set to rise.

Any of us who have, like me, tried to watch their weight know that the trick is to balance calories in with calories out. While ‘calories in’ — the target of this labelling — are the major factor, what if governments and institutions started displaying calories that could be burned through living in, and moving through, the city?

“Take the stairs, not the elevator and burn 4 calories”. “Cycle rather than drive and expend 150 calories”. “Live in this ‘active building’ and burn an extra 73,000 calories a year”.

Beacons promoting active choices could ping your wearable or phone guiding you to calorie-crushing or body-toning choices, integrating activity and exercise into daily life. The labelling could encourage active travel — for those who are able — such as walking, running or cycling to work.

We do need to be careful with labelling calories: this week’s measure doesn’t discriminate between good and bad calories, and nobody wants to exacerbate eating disorders. But, we do know that over a quarter of UK adults are obese today and that is predicted to increase.

Integrating activity into our urban lives — and being more transparent about the benefits — may be part of the answer in future.

JETPACKS ARE TAKING OFF!
Has the future we were promised finally arrived? Past visions of the future, in comics and films, seemed to always include personal jetpacks.

I saw this week that Great North Air Ambulance Service is trialling jetpacks for its paramedics. These could be used to reach the injured in the difficult terrain of the Lake District, and they are also being tested to potentially support the offshore wind industry.

Will this technology become part of everyday life in cities? The price at the moment is stratospheric; the jets are very energy-hungry; and of course there are lots of safety, regulatory, and insurance issues to be resolved. But prototypes are being tested in various parts of the world, including this one from Gravity Industries in the UK.

Looking at the trajectory of similar technologies in the past, we can expect jetpacks to initially be deployed in emergency situations or hostile/remote environments. Then they’ll become the toy of choice for billionaires and wealthy adrenaline junkies. Gradually innovation will make the jetpacks a little cheaper and a little safer.

Part of me is hugely excited by the prospect of being able to fly on my own. Part of me is depressed by the thought that those able to afford a jetpack or quadcopter, will soar above (and have no reason to improve) the gridlocked traffic, the creaking mass transit, and the pollution and grime of the city below. And all of me is thinking that now is the time to invest in parachute manufacturers!