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The Future of Home Interiors 2030 | WGSN
By 2030, the full effects of the transformative decade of the 2020s will be evident. From energy independence and the future of sustainable materials, to how lifestyle choices are impacting living spaces, this report examines the key priorities and opportunities to be aware of now – in order to plan for tomorrow.
Analysis
The importance of the home and its role as a place of comfort, sanctuary and protection will grow, fuelled by evolving lifestyle trends and disruptions such as climate change, home ownership and material scarcity.
As outlined in The Future of Home 2030, living spaces are undergoing a seismic shift, and the ramifications of the pandemic will be felt for years. The landscape of home has permanently shifted and will continue to evolve, propelled by a combination of changing emotional needs, a move towards a more thoughtful approach to design, and ever-increasing climate concerns.
While protection will remain a core priority for home and living in a world which may well continue to feel unstable and uncertain, the home is also being redefined as an emotional space which extends far beyond basic or functional needs. Home is firmly at the centre of consumers’ universes, and should be the most important place in the world. Interiors have a crucial role to play here.
The concept of home is evolving to become a consumer sentiment as well as a physical place. This is especially relevant for the Gen Z consumer; only 13% of global Gen Z consider home as a physical space, while 48% describe it as a feeling that can be created or brought wherever they go. This is paving the way for a thriving rental market for homes and furniture, which also aligns with this cohort’s attitude to sustainability and desire for creative expression. The rental real estate market was valued at $1.92trn in 2021 and is expected to reach $3.04trn by 2030, owing to the higher spending of the Gen Z generation – who are predicted to spend more than any other generation on rental services in their lifetime.
The International Furnishings and Design Association has speculated about what the home of 2030 will look like. Its Vision for the Future of Home survey revealed that the overarching themes for home design and style will be shrinking sizes, healthier design, reconfiguration to meet new multi-tasking demands, and becoming more amenable to ageing in place.
For an understanding of the future, it’s important to look to the past. Examining history and analysing past successes can provide learnings to help build a better future. Returning to simpler times in ways such as making materials onsite provide a lesson in resourcefulness, while drawing upon neighbourhood formats that the modern day has moved away from can provide inspiration for co-living.
The living house concept
The home of the future will move away from being static, into flexible spaces that fluctuate like a living organism. Flexi spaces that can continually adapt and evolve, both on a day-to-day basis and as living situations change, will be key for functional, long-lasting home interiors.
Brazilian architect Claudia Lopes coined the living house concept. She explains: “it is now necessary to design a more lively house. For example, I may have an integrated home office, but not all the time. So I create partitions that collapse or create that privacy. I move the house. It will no longer be static, it will be alive”. Broken-plan spaces that can flex between providing privacy and open-plan layouts will become more widespread. Orange Architects designed a prefabricated cabin in the Netherlands with a fluid, open living area that transforms into private zones at night. The flexible design can be reconfigured easily by closing the wooden panels in the hall or turning them 90 degrees.
The UK’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Home of 2030 competition was launched with an aim to encourage home designs that addressed a variety of challenges facing society in the future. One of the winning designs was Openstudio’s Connector Housing – a flexible and adaptable system which allows for multiple configurations over time as family circumstances change, as well as internal layouts that can be adapted to respond to changing occupant needs.
Even areas of the home which are conventionally static, such as the kitchen, will become more flexible. Danish brand Possi’s modular system rethinks static kitchen design. It can fit any space and has a simple framework which means it can be taken apart, moved or extended easily and effortlessly.
The Living House Concept can also be applied to furniture and decor. IKEA’s Space10 research and design lab collaborated with creative studio Oio to create the Updatables concept collection, which uses AI to let the user know what it needs to extend its lifespan. It envisions how the life of IKEA furniture can evolve and adapt to users’ needs, and be updated using extra parts from other pieces of IKEA furniture, becoming hybrid items, such as a chair with integrated bookshelf and reading light. Dutch paint company AkzoNobel’s colour-changing MoodPaint changes the mood of the room depending on the amount of people inside, the time of day or activity.
Orange Architects
The emotional home
The 2020s will be a transformative decade, in which the home has been placed firmly at the centre of consumers’ worlds. The emotional needs of the home are becoming equally important as function, giving rise to a number of physical and psychological trends.
Designing sanctuary discusses how design enhances the home’s ability to cater to our core emotional needs. From neuroaesthetics and wellness design, to surrounding ourselves with pets and plants, homes are increasingly being seen as a tool for self-care. Italian designer Sara Ricciardi explores the concept of turning a house into a home: “The home responds to the spirit and investment – both in the physical and more fleeting sense of the word – you put into it and soaks up the memories you attach to it. Create environments that embody you and provide moments of strength in the here and now.”
With so much ongoing uncertainty in the world, and with the ever-growing interest in self-care, carving out an emotional escape room in the home will become more commonplace. The ultimate coming together of interior design and wellness trends, this concept will grow and evolve, with room roles and functions becoming more transient and fluid to cater to emotional needs.
In addition to changing room roles, the language used in relation to homes will also evolve to better meet emotional needs. For example, author of The Contrarian Handbook: 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking, Ozan Varol, has transformed his thinking around the home office, rebranding it an “ideas lab”. Varol explains: “If you want unconventional results, pick an unconventional name that primes you for what you’re trying to achieve.”
Both minimalism and maximalism will be important emotional mindsets employed in interior spaces. For maximalism, consumers will surround themselves with things that evoke meaning. Minimalism has been slowly warming up over the years, and will continue to take on deeper layers of meaning as a tool for wellbeing and restoration. From soulful to emotional, the meaningful minimalism movement is less about an aesthetic and more about an ethos and mindset that will continue to grow in importance throughout the next decade.
Joe Mortell
Digital designer Joe Mortell’s Futura House render depicts a cosy, cocooning space, filled with plants and natural earthy tones
Soft-Firm
New York-based interdisciplinary studio Soft-Firm’s curtain intervention in a Brooklyn brownstone creates a soft, flexible space that can be open or closed off
Symbol of self
Interiors are evolving to be extensions of personal identity, as consumers creatively turn to decor and aesthetics, transforming their homes into playgrounds of self-expression.
Ricciardi believes that homes should support the screenplays and characters of our lives, explaining: “I look at the home as a stage: a comfortable theatre that can transform both into a sanctuary and a disco.” Interiors are catching fashion up as personal expression tools; research from paint brand Lick stated that 42% of Brits think that home decor is a better indicator of someone’s personality than their fashion choices. When asked what long-term impacts the pandemic will have on interior design, Virgil Abloh’s response was: “The idea of personal expression and celebrating differences – customising your space like you do your own style with the clothes you wear and the pieces you buy” – which speaks to the idea of interiors becoming as expressive as fashion styling, as the two industries become more entwined than ever.
Interiors will take cues from fashion and how we dress ourselves – for example, consumers will pay attention to the finer details, treating everything from lighting to hardware as jewellery for the home. Feelgood accents that embellish and enliven the everyday will permeate the home. Furniture and decor will be dressed and undressed as a way to personalise and soften home goods. The rental market is especially key here, as it enables consumers to experiment with aesthetic personalities in a sustainable way. Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, predicts that by 2030, “we’ll own nothing, rent everything, and be happy about it”. New UK rental furniture startup Homebound enables consumers to swap out items as their living situations or tastes change.
As consumer lifestyles become increasingly mobile, home comforts will be taken everywhere. Designer Anna Resei designed a conceptual movable dwelling for future nomads which intends to promote a “more elastic” approach to living, and can be dismantled and carried or “worn” by one person. Multifunctional wearable interiors embody the idea of the future nomad as well as expressive design. Italian brand Nimu’s beach towels can also be worn as a pareo, Barcelona-based Tropicfeel’s rucksacks unfurl to become a shelving unit, and Tel Aviv-based design, art direction and ceramic studio ABS Objects’ collaborative collection includes vases, mirrors and baskets that can be worn as well as styled in the home.
Anna Resei
A steel structure forms the frame of the Tele-nomadic Sheltering Unit, and conductive yarn will eventually be used to harvest electricity.
