Many Americans have spent weeks locked down at home more focused than ever on their living spaces, conscious of what they like and don’t like. Designers are getting busy! Many people want to start projects now because they have the time, they’ve been thinking about getting these things done, and the only thing they can’t do is travel. Key takeaways?
- Everything should be practically perfect, with a greater focus on more useful concepts, rather than just pretty pictures.
- Instead of a beautiful marble bathroom, it’s more storage solutions and closets.
- An additional double pantry to store food fueled after going to the grocery store just every 2 weeks.
- Materials will change with an emphasis on antimicrobials: Porcelanosa’s Krion is a man-made alternative to stone that’s hard-wearing and stays clean. A pricier upgrade is copper, an all-natural germ-fighting surface.
- How to sanitize outside air as it’s sucked into an AC system using infrared light?
- What about a “sanitizing sieve” intended for the entry to a large home or apartment complex, maybe like a stone circle, which mists water like you’d find on the street in Las Vegas and as you walk through, it sanitizes?
- Expect a heightened emphasis on the outdoors, especially outdoor spaces that act as additional living rooms year-round.
- Look for a rise in living walls, or vertical gardens, that will bring the outdoors inside.
- The desire for a Vegetable/herb garden is growing, a combination of needing to go to the grocery store less often, and how everyone found themselves cooking, even people who usually had a chef.
- The Utility room is the new luxury, including double laundry rooms.
- Double dishwashers in kitchens to streamline cleaning plates and flatware as people ate at home more.
- In condo’s expect touch-free elevators or ones with antibacterial, anti-scratch surfaces and industrial-grade air filters like those from Kone.
- Onsite gyms may be supplemented with private spaces in each apartment that come with a pre-installed Mirror fitness system.
- The amount of space allocated to rentable offices in any apartment tower will increase. Rentable micro-offices you can lease within a condo, could feel like you’re leaving your apartment but still have an office within your building.
-Leonard Steinberg