Gone are the days of “every man for himself," drives the overarching theme of "Cohabitation," the forecast for 2010-2011 offered at the recent Maison&Objet design and furniture expo in Paris. The largest of its kind internationally, some 40 percent of the 3,000 exhibitors are from outside of France, and about 75,000 interior decorators, set stylists, designers, press and retail buyers attend the four-day fest. Andy and I were among them.

Besides sniffing out new discoveries from all sorts of places in the NOW! Hall (we're particularly charged by the fledgling designers we ordered from hailing from Prague, Copenhagen, Valencia, Stoke-on-Trent and locally around Paris), we always look forward to the curated, high-concept trend showcases set up in Hall 1. The trio of freestanding rooms are carefully composed with furniture and furnishings plucked from some of the more progressive vendors exhibiting (and a few not even in the show), contrived to relay a topic of influence and inspiration for the coming year.

For the 2010-2011 design year, it's all about "Cohabitation," as in the "transcultures," the "cooperative" and the "hybrid."

Today, and in the coming years, of course, the urban home is created with an eye toward togetherness, an environment imbued by the human touch.
Humanity is back in vogue again, and that includes nature. This doesn't mean going native. But it does mean enlisting technology to reconcile nature with urbanization--whether it's parks, organic foods, clean air.

The showcases were split three-way, each illustrated by (and with) design:
-Transcultures: An increasingly borderless world thanks to technology and commerce means a cultural exchange that begets a transcultural aesthetic. Elizabeth Leriche, who conceived this showcase, observes: "One culture enriches the practices of others to give rise to a transcultural aesthetic of world-objects that tell a unique story. Sharing differences enriches creation."

-Cooperative: Self-sustainment is giving way to mutual aid and participatory systems that put humanity back in the center. "We are stacking, nesting, constructing a fresh, optimistic style through variable geometries. We are sharing our energies in order to create the future," notes curator Vincent Grégoire of NellyRodi.

-Hybrid: Indoor and outdoor, nature and technology...borders are disappearing between these and other worlds in a cross-pollination approach to lifestyle. Showcase curator François Bernard of Agence Croisements says: "This cohabitation is producing new categories of unusual, well-meaning objects that work for a better life for all."

Since we always hit NOW! first, we'd already zeroed in on some of the highlighted products in the showcases--but mostly because they reminded us of home.
In fact, much of the M.O. behind the ideas and examples here reminded us of those things that are quintessentially the Silverlake, even Venice, heck Cali lifestyle: The vibrant palettes, the indoor-outdoor products, the cozy textiles and hand-wrought furnishings, the garden in a bags or glass bubbles, the bohemian seating and workspaces. And, most of all, the sense of communal living that embraces a transracial, transgenerational, transcultural existence.

Above illustration is by Mathieu Babin of Coffee and Brownie.