What’s Next: The 1-5-10 Issue

It’s the time of year when nearly every publication with intellectual ambitions trots out its annual predictions guide. We’re calling ours “What’s Next: The 1-5-10 Issue.” We’ve asked leaders in architecture and design to forecast events in their fields—one, five, and ten years from now. But first, we wonder, is it even possible to predict the future? Unforeseen, history-shattering events are often just that: unforeseen and thus unpredictable. All prognostications are extrapolations on the past, based on the here and now. They’re educated guesses. This doesn’t necessarily make them wrong or unreliable or self-serving (although they can be all of those things). It merely underscores the almost utopian nature of the whole exercise. But perhaps this is as it should be. Designers, after all, are inherently optimistic. In their minds, problems exist to be solved. We offer our predictions in that spirit, hoping they serve as inspirations for the future. —Martin C. Pedersen

What’s Next:
Preservation
Hospitality
Infrastructure
Materials
Public Health
Health Care
Transportation
Workplace
Lighting
Urban Planning
Design Education
Green Building
Energy
Landscape Architecture
Retail