The Covid-19 pandemic has upended the world, it will never be the same. Social distancing, masks, self-isolation — even when it’s all left behind, we’ll remember that it could happen again. How will our experience affect interior design?
1. Privacy
When people are confined in space and forced to see each other 24 hours a day, even the strongest feelings experience a test of strength. Self-isolation is known to increase the statistics of separations and divorces. A person needs a private territory. It is clear that a separate room for each family member in most cases remains an impossible dream. But perhaps we will become more responsible about the layout: not to create open spaces in small apartments, but to leave isolated rooms. Movable partitions, swivel doors, and all kinds of screens – everything that contributes to the mobility of space – will also be in demand.
2. Home Office
The need to constantly, and not from time to time, work at home, showed how important it is to have a comfortable workplace: sitting on the couch with a laptop all day is uncomfortable and harmful. And each family member needs their own “office” so that they don’t have to share the same desk with children when making a schedule. For the same purpose, you should think about a personal computer for everyone. Even if the pandemic does not return, the home office will remain: many have appreciated the benefits of working from home.
3. Flexible Design
During self-isolation, the functional load at home increased: we had to equip offices, classrooms, playgrounds, gyms, and entertainment centers. At the same time, the number of square meters remained the same, so the same territory changed its purpose several times a day. In such conditions, lightweight, mobile furniture, everything that can be folded, removed, moved, and transformed is useful. Folding chairs and tables on wheels are just the most obvious examples.
4. Connection with nature
An antidote to stress, a guarantor of mental and physical health. Only when we were deprived of the opportunity to communicate with nature, we truly appreciated the beauty of the blooming leaves. Most likely, there will be more indoor plants in our homes, as well as green walls and “beds” on the windowsills. But that’s just one level. Designers will think more about private gardens, including rooftop gardens, and buyers will think more about having balconies, loggias, and terraces, and they might be less likely to want to attach these open spaces to living space.
5. Health
Hypodynamia is one of the most unpleasant consequences of self-isolation. Everyone fights it as best they can, someone does aerobics online, and someone jogs from the living room to the kitchen. It can be assumed that sales of home simulators will soon increase and in every home, there will be a place for a children’s sports corner or at least a Swedish wall. A good shower system is another justifiable investment in your own health.
6. Sensuality, tactility
If you have to lock yourself in the house, you want the environment to be attractive, and to have a pleasant effect on all the senses. Beautiful textures, consciously chosen shades, harmonious lighting, flowing music – all this brightens up the hardships of quarantine. And if, for example, the color of the walls remains unchanged, then the lighting should be made as variable as possible.
7. Maintaining order
Being at home around the clock is hard, and in cluttered dusty rooms, it is doubly hard. Clutter contributes to depression. Getting rid of unnecessary things and creating storage spaces – these two processes go in parallel and complement each other. The house should have built-in wardrobes and utility rooms: even in a small-sized apartment, it makes sense to allocate a separate dressing room.
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