2015: The Year Ahead – pay with your phone and share on Airbnb, Uber

Milanda Rout
FEBRUARY 06, 2015
THE AUSTRALIAN
Hot contest at the business end
A raft of airlines are taking their business- and first-class cabins to the next level, with Etihad unveiling apartment suites in first class as well as studios in business class on their new A380, which will start flying from Sydney in June. They join Qantas and Virgin, whose new business-class seats will be rolled out over 2015. Singapore Airlines have also just revamped their first-class cabins and Air New Zealand’s new premium business class has been in the air since late last year. With longer and wider seats, the “next generation” of flatbeds, amazing food and even your own living room and butler on offer, flying has never been this good.
Cash, card or phone?
According to trend forecaster Chris Sanderson, from London’s The Future Laboratory, paying with your phone will be the biggest change to retail since credit cards in the 1970s. This new technology will radically alter the way people shop (to the advantage of the consumer) and will one day do away with the cash register. It will mean if you buy a retailer’s mobile application and utilise location services on your phone, you could order your coffee on the way, walk in, pick it up and have already paid for it. “You will literally be able to pick things up and walk out with them and not be accused of shop-lifting,” says Sanderson. It also means a more tailored experience for luxury customers (your buying history and preferences will come up if you opt for the store’s mobile application) and staff will know your name as you walk in the door. “It can create a very unique and personal store experience,” he says.
Sharing is the new buying
As the ownership of houses in big cities around the world becomes increasingly expensive and out of reach for the next generation, it is also falling out of fashion (owning stuff, apparently, is so last century). In its place, sharing is taking off. “Everything is about being far more flexible and the ability to change and move,” Sanderson says. This is demonstrated by the massive rise of Airbnb (the accommodation sharing website that now books more beds than any hotel chain in the world), car sharing service Uber and even fashion renting websites. “We would say 2015 is definitely the year of the sharing economy where people understand more and more the importance of services they rent and lease that aren’t tied into ownership,” he says.

The urban village
A small award-winning apartment building in Melbourne’s inner north may be the start of something very big and very different to the standard developer-led anonymous residential blocks. The design team behind The Commons, Breathe Architecture, wanted to build an actual community, instead of just an apartment block, and they have done that with a shared laundry, communal vegetable gardens and rooftop spaces, all to the highest environmental standards. “You know your neighbours, you can bring your pets, you can grow old here … you are never lonely,” they say. The Australian Institute of Architects declared it a “real leader” in both residential and sustainable developments and the 24 apartments sold like hot cakes. The sustainable developer behind it, Small Giants, is already building a similar concept in Collingwood called Oxford & Peel.
World of Westfield
The Australian shopping centre giant is slowly taking over the planet, with its Westfield World Trade Centre slated to open in the second half of this year, and is revitalising lower Manhattan as a luxury shopping destination. Saks Fifth Avenue, Hermes, Burberry and Hugo Boss are among the retailers heading downtown to the 32,500sq m shopping space. The centre is expected to do $US700 million-$US1bn in annual retail sales. Milan is next in line for a Westfield (albeit a few years down the track) then Croydon in London, two locations in Los Angeles and the list goes on …
Online TV knocks off the box
The internet television revolution will this year finally reach Australia. Netflix will be available here next month, and Fairfax and the Nine Network’s online venture, known as Stan, will also go live in 2015. Presto Entertainment – another joint venture, this time between Foxtel and Seven – will expand its movie service to offer television shows from HBO and Seven while Foxtel has been slashing its entertainment packages to compete with the long-awaited arrival of this new platform. In the US, the last of the big networks are offering internet streaming services and the viewing habits of millennials are changing: no one watches anything on television sets any more. According to The New York Times, televisions are disappearing from college rooms and apartments, and people are instead viewing programs on their iPads or laptops. “It was a little bit weird”, says one student of finding a TV set in a friend’s room – “almost a waste of space”.

Louvre in the Gulf
Abu Dhabi’s long-awaited new Louvre museum, the first outside France, will open in December after almost five years of construction and eight years after it was announced. The architecture of the project may just be as spectacular as the works inside, it having been designed by Jean Nouvel as a “seemingly floating dome structure” with a patterned roof that allows sun to filter through. The overall effect is supposed to represent “rays of sunlight passing through date palm fronds in an oasis”. The 24,000sq m museum will host works by Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Andy Warhol and Henri Matisse for its opening exhibition.
Adeluxe
The city of churches may get a better label as a luxury shopping destination after the opening of its first Tiffany & Co store last year. If Tiffany’s venture proves successful, you never know who may follow into the neighbourhood …

Amazon down under
The other massive shake-up to Australia’s retail landscape this year could be from US online shopping giant Amazon. Rumours have been flying that the company has been scouring Queensland for a site for its first warehouse, which would mean faster and cheaper deliveries for Australian customers. They poached former Yahoo!7 CEO Stuart Sayers and have already launched an audiobook arm. Given they sell so much more than books and CDs these days, perhaps a warning by a leading advertising executive that the company will crush underdeveloped Australian e-commerce like a “boa constrictor” is not far off the mark.
Milan World’s Fair feeds the planet

Expo 2015 could be the start of a renaissance for Italy and its business and fashion capital. The theme will be “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” and will have pavilions from 144 countries. A feast for the eyes and the stomach, it will feature some of the world’s top architects, designers and chefs all in the one place. It runs from May 1 to October 31.
Step back, or forward, in time
Fashion watchers can expect three key themes this year. According to Sanderson and Australian-based trend forecaster Tony Bannister from Scout, on one end of the spectrum collections will be influenced by dark, dystopian, medieval looks, with lots of black and dark colours with heavier materials (chainmail may even make a comeback) inspired by television phenomenon Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games films. At the other end, it is all about white, minimalist, clean looks. “It’s either very futuristic or very ancient,” says Bannister. The third major trend this year is the throwback to the 1970s, with major brands like Burberry, Louis Vuitton and Calvin Klein all taking inspiration from that distinctive decade. Even this season’s iconic trench coat by Burberry has undergone a 70s-inspired update.

David Bowie is … on his way
When Jean Paul Gaultier calls something “absolutely incredible … fabulous”, it is probably worth checking out. David Bowie is – the exhibition showcasing the artist’s extraordinary career – will be at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne from July 16 to November 1. The blockbuster collection, which includes costumes, album artwork, photographs and stage sets, showed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to critical and popular acclaim. Not to be missed.
Grower takes the spotlight
Move over Jamie Oliver, Neil Perry, Kylie Kwong and the latest winner of Masterchef: 2015 is all about the farmer and the producer. As we become more interested in where our food comes from and how it is made, the value of artisan or bespoke produce is skyrocketing. We will hunt for buffalo haloumi from Queensland or organic capers from Tasmania or red gum honey from Western Australia (these are all actual finalists in national produce awards run by food magazine Delicious). Matthew Evans, one of the first celebrity producers, has a farm in Tasmania “fattening pigs, milking a cow and raising several chooks and chasing a disobedient dog”, as well as a television show appropriately called Gourmet Farmer.
Chez Luhrmann and Martin
Having conquered the world of film and dabbled in musicals and commercials, Luhrmann and his wife Catherine Martin have turned their attention to transforming a historic hotel in Miami. The Australian couple have designed interiors, uniforms and the “cultural programming” for the Faena Saxony Hotel, which is expected to open later this year. “We have a passion for hotels, about them being filled with human want,” Luhrmann has said of this project. Other hotels of note that will be worth a visit this year will be the Ritz in Paris, which will hopefully reopen in late 2015 after being closed for renovations since 2012.