A Not Too Comfortable Future takes us further afield to a not too distant, not too comfortable future. Inspired by a deeply felt scepticism for the UK government’s techno-solutionist net zero agenda and energy crisis, A Not Too Comfortable Future project for the Design Researchers in Residence (DRiR) at the Design Museum explored speculative designs for the lifestyle changes we will need to make for a low carbon future in the imminent climate collapse.

The proposition invited the viewers to rethink the way we live, reconsidering and envisioning future inhabitants. In this scenario, the responsibility for bodily heating is renegotiated between buildings and clothing. Light-touch architecture, built from the recycled detritus of late-capitalism, acts as an easily transportable shell that houses new domestic objects: furniture that is worn for warmth; garments that double as seating. As well as provocatively redesigning our notions of individual comfort, the project is an exercise in systems thinking and multidisciplinary collaboration. The proposal was the result of a collaboration with architects Thiermann Cruz, fashion designer Timothy Bouyez-Forge, as well as a talented group of fashion students from the Royal College of Art (RCA).