This is the year of makers, fixers and the ambitious, says Andrew Tuck.

What lies ahead? It’s tempting when compiling a magazine that looks over the horizon to only focus on the fantastical. But to do so misses trends and developments that are already under way and that are set to shape lives in equally meaningful ways. That’s why in this outing of The Forecast, we have matched the big vision, macro-trend predictions, with some close-up, deep dives into stories and ideas that are often under-reported.

Take Stella Roos’s story on prosthetics. When people lose a limb, or are born with without one, the consequences can be devastating – limiting lives, curtailing ambitions. Yet as anyone who has watched the Paralympics will know, if you have access to skilfully engineered replacement limbs, you can also be a dynamic, competitive athlete. The developers of these bionic arms and legs are now creating products that can be more powerful than flesh and blood. Roos, for example, meets the makers of the Utah Bionic Leg, which uses sensors and AI-powered controls to anticipate the movements of the user’s body, enabling above-the-knee amputees to climb stairs, hike and ride a bicycle. The pace of development in this industry is extraordinary and, in Roos’s reporting, you see not only a simple, comprehensible benefit of AI but also witness just how many people still dedicate their lives to doing good.

Another story that will make you reassess the communities that we live in – for the better – is Daniel Meyerowitz’s report on Seattle-based organisation Loose Ends. Its founders, crafters Jennifer Simonic and Masey Kaplan, kept hearing a similar story about what happened when someone in their network of knitters and weavers died: their grieving families would discover a half-finished tapestry or jumper and fret about what to do. It couldn’t be thrown away with a light heart but they often couldn’t complete the project either. This is where Loose Ends comes in to find someone to bring these craft tales to an end. Thousands are now donating their time and resource to the cause.

Our editors have also explored many of the hot-ticket trends shaping and reshaping their reporting beats. Our fashion director, Natalie Theodosi, and design editor, Nic Monisse, have assembled an Expo that looks at the investment being made by luxury brands into training a new generation of makers. The apprentice is the new must-have. Theodosi also tracks what’s next for sportswear and explains the rise of mid-price luxury-bag brands.

But it’s not only subtle social shifts or design and cultural trends that fill these pages. We also look at the complexities of switching to a green economy when you are a flush-with-cash petrostate – no, not Saudi Arabia, but Norway. And as drone warfare continues to develop at pace, we visit eos, an Australian company building a new generation of defence solutions.

The Forecast comes at a time when many rightfully worry about our direction of travel. After reading all the proofs for this issue, talking to our reporters and editors, I came away more alert to the risks we face but also inspired, hopeful. So here’s to an interesting future, to seeking out the makers, the fixers and the ambitious.

As always, please feel free to write to me, at at@monocle.com, or any of the monocle team. We wish you all the best for 2025. — L