Hopping on trends 2022: Sustainability, planet friendly methods and seeing craft in new ways emerge as clear winning trends

Produced by Sonia Dutt 

The earth has yet again orbited around the sun, in other words, another year has gone by! Here’s a little perspective—are new beginnings linear or are they a cycle of learning and unlearning? With that musing on our minds, after everything that the pandemic has taught us over the last two years and after beating the virus (at least we hope that we’ve beaten it) we’ve probably learnt our lessons and gained wisdom from these tough times. trends 2022…

For the coming year trends, we have a stellar team of designers to share their vision for the year. ELLE DECOR has pioneered prophecies and forecasts since time immemorial. With learnings of the past to predict the future, sustainability, planet friendly methods and seeing craft in new ways have emerged as clear winning trends. Also, adapting to a lifestyle which is more flexible and easier while appreciating the finer textures and moods of our environment emerges as seeing life in a new light. Design trends 2022 for Design trends 2022

Keeping it real: Anuja Gupta, Creative Director, Apartment09

With the world changing, Anuja Gupta feels that our homes have become safe spaces and thus, nothing is more real than your home. Emphasising on pragmatism, Gupta believes there is an exigency for spaces to host family and friends. Design should evolve with its users and adding or subtracting key pieces should be able to alter the aesthetic of any space. Explore options such as saturating colourful spaces with clean comfortable furniture pieces or using a monochromatic palette with one sharp rich accent colour with quality fabrics and a dash of drama.

apartment9.in

Minimal patterns: Chanya Kaur, Co-founder and Creative Head, The Pure Concept Home

Delineated by uncomplicated patterns and subtle textural signatures, minimalist set ups are the rage, believes Chanya Kaur. The noteworthy aspect of minimalist decor is that it reflects high modern values that hold resonance with those residing in a living space, such as inclusivity, a sense of personal liberation and creative freedom to define personal peace. As per her prediction, patterns made with simple chain stitch-style stripes, abstract designs like a deconstructed chevron or whimsical fringe will see the light of the day on curtain drapes, bed linens, headboard fabrics, etc. in
unobtrusive demeanours.

thepureconcepthome.in

Wellness: Akshat Bhatt, Principal Architect, Architecture Discipline 

For Akshat Bhatt, the coming year will see a renewed focus on our physical and mental well-being by making our buildings healthier places to live in. By devising spaces that minimise VOC (volatile organic compounds) emission and indoor pollution, implying energyefficient buildings that encourage compact, sustainable environments are key to human betterment by means of design. Open-ended and flexible spaces will see an exponential rise as work, leisure and domestic activities are becoming increasingly interchangeable as designers embrace clean, well-lit spaces that are skillfully engineered.

www.architecturediscipline.com

Celebrating craftsmanship: Ashiesh Shah, Principal and founder, Atelier Ashiesh Shah

In light of the situation last year, the concept of indigenousness and hyper-localisation will gain momentum. A definite shift in preferences—looking at design and design objects through a local lens—celebrating furniture pieces and processes that are hand crafted to perfection. An emphasis on inculcating craftsmanship and handmade processes will help create distinct narratives within spaces and exude an identity that is quintessentially rooted in India. People have started to look beyond aesthetics to value and celebrate the maker, the locale and the processes involved.

www.ashieshshah.com

Reimagining craft: Ariane Thakore Ginwala, Principal designer and founder, This and That

As the ultimate visionaries of built environments, Ariane Thakore Ginwala observes designers taking cues from the drastic lifestyle changes prompted by the pandemic and worldwide lockdowns where they are promoting and nurturing crafts and creators closer to home. She feels interior and furniture design in 2022 will be informed by a re-imagination of craft through design and collaboration with artisan communities. The coming year will be all about bringing together craft and design, weaving the indigenous with the international and evolving a new vernacular for contemporary Indian craft.

thisandthat.in

Collaboration: Rajiv and Ekta Parekh, Founding partners, reD (research II enquiry II Design)

If anything, the year gone by has made one thing pretty clear—the human race can’t exist in isolation. Reiterating this fact, Rajiv and Ekta Parekh think that in order to grow and enrich their experience one needs to infuse their creativity with that of others. What better way to fuel beauty and critical thinking than imbibing learnings from other disciplines and using them in varied scales to augment one’s own practice? Watch how waste yarn from weaving looms is reconfigured into a sliding partition designed in collaboration with a textile designer Shilpa Mody and the reD studio, executed by Colored. For the duo, the need of the hour for designers is to fulfil their social duties to design within context and join hands to reuse, repurpose and recycle.

www.redarchitects.in

Indigenous materials: Anjali Mody, Founder and creative director, JOSMO

The year 2022 is going to be the year of biomaterials! Anjali Mody feels that the inherent need of these special substances within spaces is going to be vastly explored in the coming months itself. She foresees many champions who lead by design in this space with a new found sensitivity to biomaterials, such as metals, ceramics, glass, polymers, etc. Case in point, the Low Table II from the Burnt Cork collection plays with dichotomies. From calcined bark to fine grain, from rawness to fluid curves evoking a caress, the rough blocks structurally hold the soft fluidity of the uppermost surface.

www.josmostudio.com

The new normal: Latika Khosla, Founder director, Freedom Tree Design

Make way for homes that are brimming with interesting ideas that depict normalcy in a new light! A new normal that is surreal, more playful and energetic and in tandem with conscious use of materials. Keeping that in mind Latika Khosla forecasts unleashed creativity via the application of vibrant, biophilic prints and patterns inside homes. Aim to thoughtfully refashion your spaces catering to our newfangled needs while deciding what to reveal and where. Here’s hoping to move thoughtfully towards the times where the skies are clearer, hope is tangible, homes are edgy and bursting with joy!

freedomtree.in

Modernising craft: Shabnam Gupta, Principal designer, The Orange Lane

Working closely with artisans to preserve their craft, Shabnam Gupta identifies a surge in the implementation of arts and crafts of India in design. She strongly feels that this a massive change we need to adhere to in 2022, almost calling it a ‘movement’ where the aim is to preserve the ancient crafts and showcase to the world the beauty of handmade, handcrafted work. Visualise an extravagant mooda chair upholstered with a gorgeous velvet fabric with kashida (Kashmiri) embroidery. According to her, there is much that our artisans have to offer, we just need to marry the traditional to the modern while maintaining the perfect balance between the two.

www.shabnamgupta.com and peacocklife.com 

Flexible interiors: Iram Sultan, Principal designer, Iram Sultan Design Studio

A continuation of the global trend that began a few years ago, Iram Sultan predicts 2022 will witness workspaces integrating flexible interiors. Large office campuses with relaxation rooms, breakout areas, game areas, eating hubs, etc. will further evolve, aptly illustrated with the use of acoustic panel tiles, pendant lights and rich colour palette in the pantry area of Grow, a modern office designed by Campfire & Co. and Work Program Architects. On the other hand, she visualises quiet corners inside homes where people can work without being disturbed. Whether it’s the office or home, people crave for a sense of belonging. Designs that respond to this feeling will survive and thrive.

www.iramsultan.com

To stay updated on all things design and trends subscribe to the December 2021 – January 2022 issue of ELLE DECOR India…