"Forced back home" is a good title for the chapter of design history we are currently living. That's why we won't go beyond the home in our annual trend forecast, hopeful that 2022 will see a return to outdoor and community spaces. For many, 2020 was the year of the work invasion of domestic spaces, for others, sadly, the loss of jobs. Either way, we've had to come to terms with our intimate spaces and the fantasies born from observing them. In this gallery we propose ten suggestions that partly overcome the catalyzing theme of smartworking. They stem from the design insights published on the Domus website and from some primary needs that we hope to satisfy in the year to come, first and foremost a sociality that for now will be resolved in private circles and within the walls of the home.
Interior and architecture trends 2021
A selection of trends we foresee this year. From architectural elements to interior design.
MVRDV, Tainan Spring. Photo Daria Scagliola. © Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries. Read full article here
Botteri-Connell, Buenos Aires villa, 2018. Photo Gustavo Sosa Pinilla. Read full article here
Botteri-Connell, Buenos Aires villa, 2018. Photo Gustavo Sosa Pinilla. Read full article here
Architect Aquiles Jarrín, apartment renovation in Quito, 2020. Photo JAG Studio. Read full article here
Kooo Architects, Origin Villa Resort, Dashan Village, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China, 2020. Photo Keishin Horikoshi / SS. Read full article here..
Kooo Architects, Origin Villa Resort, Dashan Village, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China, 2020. Photo Keishin Horikoshi / SS. Read full article here..
Sergey Makhno, Shkrub House, Kozyn, Kyiv (Ukraine), 2019. Photo Serhii Kadulin. Read full article here
Marc Leschelier, Cold Cream, 2020. Read full article here
Sò Studio, Canal St. Selected Store, Shanghai, 2019. Photo Yuhao Ding, Elbe Yufei Li, Mengjie Liu. Read full article here
Miguel Marcelino, apartment renovation in Lisbon, 2020. Photo Lourenço T. Abreu. Read full article here
Casa Martha by Naso, Mexico, 2020. Read full article here
The entrance of Casa Luisina, a project by Luciana Fernandez Reimers and María Elena Risso in La Plata, Argentina, 2019. Read full article here
Zyva studio, Blue Cube, Paris, 2019. Photo BCDF studio. Read full article here
Lucas y Hernández-Gil, apartment in Madrid, 2019. Photo José Hevia. Read full article here
Yebin Design studio, Conemoting Market, Shenzhen, 2020. Photo Xiaoyun. Read full article here
Gianni Pettena, Rumble / Sofa, 1967, courtesy de l’artiste et Salle Principale, Paris © Aurelio Amendola. Read full article here
A spa in Caracas inspired by 2001: A Spacy Odissey, designed by Atelier Caracas. Photo Saúl Yuncoxar + Catalina Quintana. Read full article here
Arquitectura-G, Acid House, Barcelona, 2019. Photo Josè Hevia. Read full article here
Taller | Mauricio Rocha + Gabriela Carrillo, Iturbide Studio, Coyoacán, Mexico City, 2016. Photo Rafael Gamo. Read full article here
Raúl Sánchez Architects designs The Magic Box Apartment, Barcelona, 2020. Photo José Hevia. Read full article here
Lucas y Hernández-Gil, apartment in Madrid, 2019. Photo José Hevia. Read full article here
Studio Morison, MOTHER, 2020. Photo Charles Emerson. Read full article here
Defhouse, the Milanese tiktokers’ house, 2020. Photo Simone Furiosi. Read full article here
Defhouse, the Milanese tiktokers’ house, 2020. Photo Simone Furiosi. Read full article here
Pig Design, Seiranri Public Area, Bin jiang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. Photo Wang Fei, Shi Zheng, Qi Shuoqian. Read full article here
Lucas y Hernández-Gil, apartment in Madrid, 2019. Photo José Hevia. Read full article here
One Take Architects, Digital Arts temporary museum, Beijing. Photo Nan Xueqian. Read full article here
One Take Architects, Digital Arts temporary museum, Beijing. Photo Nan Xueqian. Read full article here
One Take Architects, Digital Arts temporary museum, Beijing. Photo Nan Xueqian. Read full article here
One Take Architects, Digital Arts temporary museum, Beijing. Photo Nan Xueqian. Read full article here
Nendo, Stairway house, Tokyo, 2020. Photo Daici Ano, Takumi Ota. Read full article here
Ludwig Godefroy, Zicatela House, Puerto Escondido (Mexico), 2018. Photo Rory Gardiner. Read full article here
AMOO, apartment renovation in Barcelona, 2020. Photo José Hevia. Read full article here
Batek Architekten, Sch52, Berlin, 2020. Photo Marcus Wend. Read full article here
Bureau headquarters a Lisbona, 2020. Photo Dylan Perrenoud. Read full article here
Jorge Ramón Giacometti Architecture Workshop, Avocados House, Puembo, Ecuador, 2020. Read full article here
Xiaoxi Xiong, office in Beijing, 2019. Photo Mobai, Ling Yu, Xiaoxi Xiong. Read full article here
Arquitectura-G, Acne Studios store, Stockholm, 2020. Photo José Hevia. Read full article here
Studio Wanna and Formica Group, Horizon88, Madrid, 2020. Photo Caulin Photo. Read full article here
A Work of Substance, Mother Pearl, Hong Kong, 2020. Photo Amanda Kho. Read full article here
A Work of Substance, Mother Pearl, Hong Kong, 2020. Photo Amanda Kho. Read full article here
A Work of Substance, Mother Pearl, Hong Kong, 2020. Photo Amanda Kho. Read full article here
View Article details
- Marianna Guernieri
- 15 January 2021
For many, water is an element that can only be reached by traveling unless you own a backyard pool or a home spa. Soaking in water is a practice that is disappearing from city life, with increasingly expensive spas and apartments where bathtubs are being replaced by large, minimalist showers. Having "water in the house" will be the challenge for many and the most daring will delight us with incredible wet interiors. To inspire you, here is a selection of provocative projects where water has literally invaded the spaces.
There are many natural building materials to discover, from raw earth to straw, from rice to hemp, passing through natural plasters such as cocciopesto or quicklime. Few, however, have the evocative power of adobe, whose rounded, soft shapes are an antidote to depression. The walls of adobe are warm and comforting and many might choose this material - or at least this aesthetic - in their private spaces.
With lockdown, we have partially freed ourselves from certain consumer logics, but above all from formality. Just think of all those zoom meetings interfered by children, background noise and pets. This liberation can also be observed in architecture, where fancy finishes give way to more spontaneous gestures, perhaps technically more crude, but certainly original. It is no longer necessary to have a pristine floor or impeccable joints by spending large capital, but to have a real and stimulating space where focus is somewhere else.
Dance died last year. Let's resurrect it. We should indulge with style in what is the entertainment par excellence, even if in very small groups in our homes. Let's revive couple dances or tribal rave dances in a suitable space: just two square meters and a minimum of reasoned lighting. Even chamber music was born in the private salons of the Seventeenth century when outside the walls of the palaces the plagues or religious repressions prevented the celebration of music in public. That period gave us back Arcangelo Corelli, Henry Purcell and Antonio Vivaldi.
It's an old topic, but too much technology, too many smartphones, too much connection is bad, very bad. Netflix amiably reminded us of this, keeping us glued to its screens with documentaries that explained to us when it was wrong to be glued to screens (take The Social Dilemma). Providing a space - possibly with very thick walls - where we don't have phones, computers and routers so we can read, think, play, rest, do crafts, exercise, meditate and on and on will be an increasingly necessary choice. Filled with plants or completely bare, sci-fi or more domestic, this space goes far beyond a room for meditation. It is a space for the human.
But if our digital addiction is irreparable, we might as well make the best of it and equip ourselves with a space that suits our virtual egos. Let's equip ourselves with comfortable spaces and real sets to break through on Tick Tock, Only Fans and Instagram but also in our business meetings and on Teams. On this front we expect the highest virtuosity.
Archaic element, elevation to the divine. We know some very famous ones, from the steps of Villa Malaparte in Capri to the pink stairs of the Muralla Roja by Ricardo Bofill. The ones we will see go through interiors and lead nowhere. Sitting on a staircase to converse or meditate - even in domestic spaces - is a good way to change your perception of space and move differently. It stimulates balance and movement.
We caught the revival as early as last year with Enorme Studio's Instagram account @bizarrecolumns and then talking about ornamentation in architecture with Rik Nys in David Chipperfield's Domus. More and more designers are enhancing it and integrating it into their work. It is painted in fluorescent colors, or used as a decorative element with precious marbles. Whether industrial or classic, massive or subtle, the column generates rhythm in its ancient appeal.
In our trilogy of the archaic, after the steps and columns we open our domestic spaces to monoliths. Large blocks of rough stone are catapulted into our living rooms and used as tables or seating, or simply as mysterious masses to be admired. Without fomenting the immoderate exploitation of quarries, this primitivism can be adapted to more accessible materials such as concrete.
After last year's infinity terrazzo, here we are with the return of brick, which to tell the truth has never disappeared, but is now used in the same way, with a rough finish, seamless between walls, ceilings, floors, and built in furniture. As if our homes were transformed into an archaeological site, where the anxiety towards surface hygiene gives way to the evocative beauty of this eternal material.