Faith in the future

Frank Beliën believes in progress. The Belgian co-founder of Living Tomorrow says his project teaches people not to be frightened of the future.

"I want to get rid of that usual reaction to be afraid of something new. I remember the moment my office had to throw out their typewriters and everyone thought the world was ending. But it didn’t," he says. Any idea that the world is getting worse is, if normal, utterly unfounded, he says.

"If we still did things the same way as in the past we would not have medicine, we would not live so well or for so long. A lot of people now think nothing needs changing. In 50 years’ time we’ll look back and laugh at them."

Beliën says the 20th century created new energy and environment challenges. But he adds that we should find ways to improve modern discoveries, rather than get rid of them.

"I’m not going to walk to Spain for my holidays because of CO2 emissions from aeroplanes. We have to find solutions. Within 50 years most cars will run on something other than petrol, we are looking for that something now."

Beliën says the Living Tomorrow project could speed up the search. The project brings big companies such as Philips together with smaller businesses that they might not otherwise meet and sets them to work to strict deadlines on developing new designs.

"We have less time and money than big companies, so we have to develop ideas faster. A thousand days before we open, we start work on a project. Then we focus on the fact that we have to open in a thousand days’ time."

Beliën hopes the energy efficient house designs at the latest Living Tomorrow, along with the kitchen monitors for water and electricity consumption, could soon be as common as ideas showcased in earlier programmes.

"At the first project [in 1995] we were talking about internet shopping, ordering travel tickets online. Everyone thought we were crazy."

"70 to 80% of what we show is going to happen."

Frank Beliën believes in progress. The Belgian co-founder of Living Tomorrow says his project teaches people not to be frightened of the future.