For the latest of my series of articles analysing the leading trends to look out for in 2021, I was intrigued to be taken through an extensive research paper entitled Future of the Home. The incredibly detailed and insightful report by Swedish homelift company Aritco and forecaster Springwise lists 18 emerging tech innovations and an insightful view of how our lives at home may well be completely shifting in light of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021 and beyond.
I caught up with David Schill, Marketing Director, Aritco to understand more on the research and its origins. Aritco offers products to both the home market as well as the public and commercial sector in more than 40 countries all over the world. Schill confirms that markets like Asia, Pacific and the Middle East are already ‘home lift oriented’ and are growing at a good pace. Schill and the Aritco team naturally see design and innovation as a crucial tool to moving forward out of the difficult times of 2020 and the beginnings of the pandemic.
ARITCO (C) 2021
“Understanding how people’s living environment is changing is very important for us as a company. Our mindset is about creating new possibilities for people to live their lives in a changing environment together with their family and friends using the full potential of their house or apartment. We cannot only look at the residential lift industry and how things always have been, we need to understand how things will be.”
The report details the likes of a bladeless ceiling fan that kills microorganisms, to ceiling panels that use ultraviolet technology to remove infectious air particles. The innovation has incredible potential to change our lives – and Aritco’s research and development team are looking into them already.
“We are looking into many different areas, but using UV light solutions to create a safer environment in terms of viruses and bacteria is very interesting to us as a lift manufacturer. We are also exploring ways of utilizing spaces within lifts to blend functionality and design in new ways, covering functions or bringing them forward to stand out using design and art – making the functionality more beautiful, so to speak.”
“This is an area that I do believe has ‘frog-leaped’ during the pandemic. Our sustainability concerns and consciousness is increasing all the time and I do believe that most people incorporate more and more sustainability aspects in their daily chores and activities. So, my guess is that this will continue to increase at an even higher pace.
Aritco’s research and development team has already begun exploring how to implement some of the innovations in their Future of the Home report, working with a variety of other design and architectural brands to use it as inspiration to take on 2021 with promise and optimism.
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“The pandemic has clearly been awful, and we need to care and support each other in all ways possible. However, it also offers an opportunity to ’restart’ when going back to ‘normal’ and question oneself – how would I like to live my life going forward? What is important? Therefore, I predict many areas will change faster than we maybe thought before, due to the new perspective and the new digital maturity among all ages.”
With 2021 already upon us, Schill is focused on getting the year off to a positive start.
“First and foremost, we need to keep focused on coming out of the pandemic stronger, be able to meet other people – and hopefully be able to touch, hug and show care once more. From a company perspective I want to push more of the innovative solutions that create new possibilities for people to live a modern and sustainable life together. I want to see some of the innovations we are looking into today to become standard solutions within our products, making our lifts even more safe and beautiful.”
I am always excited when innovative companies commission deep-dives into specific areas of global innovations, but as we increasingly spend time in our homes, it is truly fascinating to hear how technology will continue to shape how we live. While so many of us are understandably focused on our own situation, the report is an exciting reminder about what could happen – as Schill concludes, as we start looking at the ‘horizon’ again and strive forward there will hopefully be very exciting times ahead.