The most important living trends in 2021: About redefining a good home and why cities need to become more resilient
Source & Copyright by Zukunftsinstitut
Author: Oona Horx-Strathern
The Home Report from Oona Horx-Strathern, together with the Zukunftsinstitut, presents the most important Living trends 2021 and shows how the collective shock of the corona crisis is changing the understanding of a good home - and like ours cities can be made more resilient in the long term.
Living trends 2021 - Key Messages:
- Hoffice - The fusion of home and office: “Hoffice” brings the megatrend New Work into play by making the office part of the home for many people during the crisis. Home and office become one. For this reason, you not only need flexibility and adaptability in the design of the rooms, but also in thinking.
- Romancing the Balcony - The revival of balconies and terraces: With garden, balcony or terraces have made the corona crisis much more bearable. Private outdoor spaces have become the focus of life. This revitalization shifts the focus of residential construction, as everyone needs private space in open air.
- Home Suite Home - Bring the hotel feeling into your home: Many people have build a new relationship with their homes. It should be cozy and homely - and a bit like on vacation. Thus hotels became a role model for comfy homes.
#stayhome - The importance of homes increases. The private space suddenly has an immensely important role, not only in our coexistence, but also in our daily work life. With the Hoffice living trend, Oona Horx-Strathern describes how living and working interacts together, making clear that this trend is here to stay.
The luck of having your own balcony has never been as important as it has been in recent months. This revitalization shifts the focus in residential construction and shows some new creative solutions. Not only for work, our homes are now playing two roles, as they need to compensate for missed vacations One other living trend in 2021 is describes as Home Suite Home, which celebrates the hotel feeling at home. As feeling good at home was seldom more important than in the current situation.
Related topics: Cocooning 3.0 - When the inside becomes the outside
Insights - Modular Construction, Building Equality
1. Modular construction: Mastering crises in a modular and flexible manner
Modular construction is currently experiencing an immense boom worldwide. As a fast, flexible, inexpensive and ecological construction method, it enables a modular expansion (or reduction) of rooms. Depending on economic conditions, needs or crisis situations. This also changes the general understanding of buildings as fixed units. In the future, thanks to its modularity, a building will adapt to the functions it has to fulfill - regardless of how quickly or how much the function changes.
2. Building Equality: Women in the construction and architecture industries
Much of the people who live in Construction and architecture professions work are men. Cities with their infrastructure, buildings with their functions were planned and built primarily on the basis of data and concepts, that were collected and developed by men. The gender shift megatrend is slowly reaching the industry and people are slowly starting to understand the different spatial needs of women and translating them into built reality. This gender-sensitive view ensures an immense improvement in the built environment beneficial for all humans.
Topics - The Resilient City, Housing Plus, Hero Materials
1. The resilient city: Crisis festival through co-immunity, hyper-localism and slow mobility
We had the vision of a clean, green and quiet city in mind for a long time - it became a reality in the corona crisis. Now this impetus brings along constructive and long-term changes, that are not only beneficial for our physical but also for our mental health. This 2021 residential trend is about building so called urban resilience. The ability of a cityto survive and even flourish in the face of sudden shocks, such as a pandemic or a disaster, but also long-term pressures such as crime or power outages.
2. Housing Plus: Alternative housing models of the future
Wherever there is a risk of vacancies or housing crises, standard solutions no longer work. Among the living trends for 2021, pioneering projects show how we could live in the future by changing the type of building and questioning living. They are considered daring experiments, break with old beliefs and radically rethink the interplay between form and function: From floating houses to temporary living concepts for vacant buildings to various silver co-living models.
3. Hero Materials: The stuff the future is made of
The megatrend Neo-ecology determines the development of interior design: It is no longer just about producing sustainably, but rather to convey a clear message. Materials are not neutral. materials They influence our state of mind, with them we express our individuality or make a statement.
But they can also provide answers to current and future challenges. Materials have a transformative potential to make the world a little better - and the opportunity to solve some urgent problems simply “materialistically”: From Cradle-to-Cradle-Furniture to antimicrobial surfaces.
Source: Zukunftsinstitut from the trend study Home report 2021
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About the author: Oona Horx-Strathern
Oona Horx-Strathern has been a trend researcher, consultant, speaker and author for over 25 years. She wrote books on the "History of Futurology" and "Architecture of the Future", worked on numerous studies at the Zukunftsinstitut and speaks about architecture as a lifestyle, urban development and socio-demographic change. She lives between Germany, England and the “Future Evolution House” in Vienna, which she has built together with her husband Matthias Horx.