Furniture future

Exhibition showcases how industrial design has significantly changed lifestyles over a century, Lin Qi reports.

In the final scenes from Charlie Chaplin's satire The Great Dictator, he delivers a speech to the assembled crowd in the make-believe country of Tomania.

"More than machinery, we need humanity," goes a quote from Chaplin's speech in the film. Today, this same quote is being displayed at Design Utopia 1880-1980, an exhibition at the Tsinghua University Art Museum. The exhibition, until Aug 25, captures the critical development of design as an independent discipline and industry over a century.

The use of Chaplin's quote reveals the idea underpinning this display of 158 modern designs; that design gives people access to the benefits of industrial production and helps them to envision a creative and sustainable future, as well as serving human interests in a much more diverse way.