Interior design trends:
Circumstances shape us and that is unquestionable. The arrival of the pandemic has changed our lives, altering our habits, routines and even the way we approach and communicate with each other. It is still too early to say which of these changes will be permanent and which will be temporary, but we know that from this experience some habits could have changed forever.
But although now that our customs have been forced to change to adapt to coexistence with the coronavirus, although we are willing to accept these changes in peace, our environment must provide us with the essential conditions to comply with the safety, hygiene and coexistence standards that today we are expected to comply.
Do our residences have the necessary conditions to adapt to change? What transformations are necessary to make our experience in these spaces comply with the rules of coexistence formulated to protect our health and safety? Are our homes friendly places where we can stay comfortably for the duration of the confinement?
Today we spend a lot of time at home, we finally have to inhabit it, live it and experience it as perhaps never before. The prolonged stay in our homes reveals to us that their conditions are probably not adequate to incorporate new habits into our daily lives. Just now we are discovering that our spaces are smaller than we thought, that the distribution of the areas is not as functional as we thought or that perhaps the apartment was designed for four people, but for four people who do not meet at the same time.
We believed that the spaces in which we moved were enough until we had to experience them from another angle. Daily life could be forcing us to introduce permanent changes that reduce the risk situations that have facilitated the spread of the pandemic. Our outings have been limited to specific errands such as medical emergencies, resolving banking issues, or going to the pharmacy or the supermarket, we have to stay at home most of the time. Today we need to have sufficient facilities in our homes, and our places of residence, to make our long stays not only more bearable and bearable but also enjoyable. It is essential that our experiences at home are, more than bearable, pleasant experiences. They are our homes and we deserve to be happy in them.
The necessary changes An exclusive place for teleworking:
We have to work from home. The telework that many companies avoided for so long, today has become a mandatory measure. Not having an adequate space at home for work, free of distractions and without the necessary furniture can reduce our productivity and harm our health. On the other hand, undefined areas to work at home tend to produce greater exhaustion, since the distractions can make the working hours endless. The ideal is a space whose use is exclusively for work with which we separate working hours from leisure and rest. In the next residential designs, the office would occupy a place as essential as the kitchen, the bathroom, or the bedrooms. They will not be multipurpose spaces, but exclusively work sites.
Greater entry of natural light and ventilation
We need bigger windows. The feeling of confinement is the most frequent complaint of those of us who have remained isolated in our homes for all this time. Natural light and the possibility of extending our gaze to the horizon become essential to alleviate the feeling of confinement. Good ventilation, on the other hand, constitutes a health benefit that allows the renewal of the air inside our homes, as it prevents the accumulation of microorganisms that float in our rooms.
Greater possibility of interaction with the other
In addition to feeling comfortable and safe, it is also necessary to be able to connect with our neighbors in a safe way, in order to feel that we are in a neighborhood. We live in residential units as dismembered bodies, separated from each other by walls of brick, concrete, and metal. It is clear that during isolation contact with the other is the least indicated, but seeing each other from a distance, knowing that we are not alone makes us look at confinement from another perspective; one in which we form a community, in which we see ourselves reflected in the daily life of the other, which pays our resilience and invites us to continue united in the same purpose.
A sanitizing area
Visiting bathrooms could also be sanitization areas. We have had to improvise hygiene areas, next to the entrance of our homes, with which we seek to reduce the possibility of entry of agents that may threaten our health. In the immediate future, taking into account this “new” habit of cleaning ourselves before reaching the interior of our homes, we will be able to see bathrooms more frequently with the necessary requirements for this purpose. The pandemic will not be with us forever, but we will be more aware of the importance of frequent hygiene as a preventive measure; something that we always knew, but whose fulfillment we released over time.
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More spacious common areas
The common areas of the residential units will continue to be for the enjoyment of all their co-owners, but they must be transformed into areas away from overcrowding, with enough space to move freely. This presents an interesting challenge, especially now when making the most of the smallest space had been the norm. Coexistence involves more individuals and is necessary for the emotional balance of each one.
Custom Design Styles
By increasing the amount of time we spend indoors, we become more aware of what in the space is akin to our personality and what is not. This will invite us to be more selective when choosing elements that are part of our daily life because in the long run, they will become another guest to coexistence.
It is possible that the own voice gains more force than the great trends of the market, many of which will not aesthetically or functionally reflect the desire of the users.
Substitution of materials
The materials will also change. Surfaces that resist frequent cleaning and that facilitate this task will become more in demand. Thorough hygiene has been inscribed in our minds, which is why materials that deteriorate with frequent cleaning will be replaced by others that simplify this task. Special care materials, whose cleaning requires special products or hire a third party could be replaced. Accessories such as handles handles, taps and door knobs made or covered in copper or brass would also see an increase in demand due to their effectiveness in neutralizing microbes, viruses, and bacteria that remain on their surface, to a much lesser extent. time than other materials such as steel, ceramic, or wood.
More plants inside
Longing for contact with nature will make us incorporate it into our homes in a more meaningful way. Plants, beyond being a decorative accessory, will occupy a more relevant place in our homes, since they will be the necessary link with the outside at times when it is not possible to go out and connect with it. Isolation has strengthened our environmental awareness and has revealed to us the true value of its resources.
energy saving systems
Spending most of the time in our homes today represents a higher consumption of resources such as water, gas, and electricity. Part of our energy expenditure occurred in our workplace and our children's school, so now that we spend more time at home we will be more aware of the real family consumption of electricity, domestic gas, and water services. We will be more aware of this consumption and we will begin to demand methods that optimize the use of resources.
Architectural design influences our lives and shapes our habits, generating new social behavior. The role of architecture is paramount in the metamorphosis, to guide the population towards a society more concerned about their safety as an individual and as part of the social fabric.
Although the pandemic will not be what governs our lives forever, the quarantine experience offers us another look at our daily lives and shows us that there are conditions that must be flexible enough to mold them and adapt them to the demands of the circumstances. Perhaps architecture should consider designs with more plasticity and replace forms and concepts that are difficult to transform. Today we see how the security transmitted by the spaces we inhabit has more to do with the ability to provide an alternative to contingency situations than with the construction of insurmountable monuments.
