Sloft #5 - For Inspiring Urban Interiors

There's nothing more dated than the word "future". And yet, when you look at the present, you have to believe in it again.

In this fifth bilingual issue:

• From New York to Bristol, via Marseilles, Pantin and Paris, we explore several visions of the future of living by inviting us into eight flats that are as different as they are complementary. A future made of ultra-technical but durable materials, corresponding to the utopian images conveyed by works of science fiction. A retro-future with organic shapes reminiscent of the psychedelic comic strips of the 70s. A future of juxtaposition, of grafting, where contemporary objects such as a 'bento box' inspire the creation of modules that invite themselves into antique interiors. Or a future that is, in the final analysis, very much in the present, where the conservation and enhancement of the traces and materials of the past are at stake.

• We take an interest in the future of our cities through the place we give to the new generation of residents in our dossier "Kids in the city". Because a city that is hospitable to children is a city that is hospitable in every sense of the word. So we explore the changing role of children, the experimental solutions that have been devised to turn cities back into playgrounds that are conducive to their development, and we hear from families who tell us about the constraints or, on the contrary, the opportunities they see in bringing up their children in the city. One thing is certain: since they are there, they must be taken into account.

• We also invite you to visit two personalities who combine their art with the future and whose work is helping to renew the emotional machines that are our cities. Social networking star chef Julien Sebbag reveals his new flat, designed with his architect friend Julien Sebban, founder of the Uchronia agency, an interior full of tasty shapes, materials and colours, just like his recipes. The prima ballerina Germain Louvet poses in his interior, as our "ballet and domesticity" (SIC) teams brief him. He tells us about his career, talks about dance as a precipitate of urban life and shares his questions about this art form shaped by a long tradition.

Eclecticism, poetry, art, escapism, beauty and good ideas are definitely not a function of square metres!