According to recent Key Note business intelligence reports, contemporary interiors are forecast to become progressive in 2016. Here we consider five potential interior design ideas, permeated by the central trends of minimalism, futuristic fantasy and sustainable living, to create a radically different effect:
1. Indoor Vertical Gardens
Living green walls featuring aquatic plants with self-watering capabilities are a New York invention, devised as a healthy and convenient solution to bringing the outside indoors in the form of a ‘vertical garden’. Ideal for small spaces, they can be mounted in the same way as a painting and create a soothing sanctuary in bathrooms.
2. Barrisol Stretch Ceilings
The latest stretch ceiling technology offers the artistic freedom to create ceilings of almost any shape, colour and texture, including 3D, animated and mirrored structures. Choosing translucent and reflective membranes makes it easy to produce optical illusions such as a night sky full of stars or a lofty sun-bathed room with high-gloss ceilings and golden lights.
As stretch ceilings do not contain any harmful components, they are perfect for sensitive environments such as hospitals and schools. Examples from companies such as fabricarchitecture.com include installations at North Durham Academy and the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, where the practical advantages of stretch ceilings can be fully appreciated.
3. 3D Robotic Walls
Sci-fi futuristic fantasy has become a reality thanks to the Far East’s application of scientific research to the interior design of 3D robotic origami skin walls with kinetic skeletons. Their key feature is that they can communicate with each other wirelessly and rearrange themselves via algorithm sensors to adapt to residents’ privacy.
4. Home-garden Libraries
An Oxford literature professor’s reported installation of an eco-friendly modular garden library/reading retreat designed by 3rdSpace has helped to spark the curious trend of the home-garden library. Favouring a high-tech glass-plated look with an emphasis on sustainable, ethically-sourced natural materials, the garden library looks set to be the new greenhouse for books.
5. Sacred Minimalist Chic
The New York Times Architectural Review highlights the pure white luminescent interiors of minimalist John Pawson’s St Moritz Church and Renzo Piano’s Poor Clares Convent in France. Taken as inspiration and accented with Pantone’s Colours of the Year 2016, Rose Quartz and Serenity Blue, this may bring a sense of balance, composure and peace to home interiors in the new year.
