This year’s Auckland Design Week HQ was housed in the Life church campus on Normanby Road, hence the tempting rhetorical trope of ‘faith over fear’ but, word play aside, the light-filled venue turned out to be an inspired choice for its design, amenity and location.

In the middle of a week packed with satellite events, self-guided circuits and design days and labs, the ‘Chance + Change’ day-long conference invited a host of designers, architects, artists and industry enthusiasts to consider the transformative potential and ethical implications of emerging technologies such as AI, VR, AR, prefabrication, 3D printing, software-generated design and more.

Billed as a showcase of the “dynamic interplay between tradition and technology, craftmanship and innovation”, we were asked to attend with an open mind as we considered pushing hypotheticals, breaking rules and borrowing from other industries.

The big-ticket name on the speakers’ list was the larger-than-life Karim Rashid, whose body of work (at 2-3 seconds per image on the reel) appeared to outlast his 1 hour 30-minute talk and Q&A session… perhaps the man doesn’t sleep? On describing the pluralist act of the creator, he did point out that “the creator can create almost anything”, and so, it would seem, he has.

Rashid sees his role as shaping a world around us to elevate our emotions, where “beauty is defined by the inner and outer working together in harmony”. For such a prolific designer, there was perhaps some irony in his assertion that the less things we have, the more our planet will be able to survive, and that, for him, personally, “to not have things is a freedom”. But he did share some interesting insights:

1. We are living in the ‘casual age’ (where neck ties are no longer de rigeuer and more than 50% of shoes sold are sneakers)

2. AI is the past, not the future — it only documents what we’ve already done

3. With everything today being image-driven, we’re fast becoming followers, not originators. Where is the diversity, the difference, the disparity? Beware of banality.

4. Transparency is critical; without it, a business will die

5. Technology can be a beautiful driver for originality

After an enlightening, fast-paced talk packed with anecdotes, observation and history, Rashid left us with a powerful, mindful thought — that the ultimate form of human existence is to live in the present – before disappearing, stage right, to change into another eye-catching ensemble to dazzle during the cocktail hour.

Other speakers throughout the day shared with us how AI has “infused huge efficiencies” into their designs (Laura Heynike from Pocketspace Interiors), in terms of both concept generation and site measures, freeing them up to spend more time on diving into the detail that really matters. Talk of pushing design barriers, the benefits of wastage metrics, the endless potential of parametric design, and the ability to put value back on human connection overwhelmingly gave a thumbs up to AI.

Martin Varney from MAKE Architects (designers of the beautiful Karangahake Gorge house) said the only limitations to his studio’s sustainable prefab designs were in the suppliers’ methodology of putting the product together. Rui Peng, co-founder of Critical, pointed out that when an interior fitout typically lasts only 5–7 years, think of the waste. Hence, the birth of his Cleanstone, made from 100% recycled plastics and 100% recyclable at end of life. Varney and Peng’s panel were also all tech positivity, describing transforming workflow, client interactions, sustainability and global reach.

Ethics and cyber-security were covered, in terms of intellectual property theft, insider threats and tech giant influence, as were social norms, cloud storage and energy use. Frances Valintine (academyEX founder) was insistent: “We suffer from slow adoption of AI here in New Zealand, we have to get over the fear of AI taking our jobs and we need to start using it.” In perhaps one of the most prescient statements of the day, she added: “Ethics are under siege, the loudest voices are being heard (citing Musk’s LLM Grok), we need to be in the game.”

Next up a panel of B-Corp certified practitioners, the founders of ahha, Blunt Umbrellas, Deadly Ponies and Eva, spoke of their experience in building strong, sustainable and socially-responsible businesses and the day concluded with Warren and Mahoney’s Te Ari Prendergast sharing how design can help restore mātauranga Māori by examining the role of healing, ritual and knowledge in addressing past injustices, restoring connection to the land and revitalising cultural traditions.

Auckland Design Week founder Jen Jones should be buoyed by the initiative’s first conference. The day was a manifestation of Rashid’s proposed future of design: “where creativity, technology and human essence merge seamlessly to enhance our collective experience.”