Our Back to the F**kture series asks renowned thinkers to put foresight predictions under the hindsight spotlight. This month Martin Raymond speaks to Bas Van de Poel, ex-creative director and visionary behind Ikea’s famed Space10 design and innovation lab.

Bas Van de Poel describes his new venture, Modem – co-founded with fellow designer and creative director Astin Le Clercq – as an office for design and innovation where the future is anticipated and imagined accordingly. But, as he tells Martin in this episode, it is also about inventing the future rather than predicting it. Or, as he puts it, ‘futures, plural, since any future solution involves multiple options and opportunities rather than a singular, binary approach’. Tune in and listen to this episode now.