Architecture trends for 2011/12

  

Last month the American credit rating was downgraded by Standard & Poor for the first time since credit ratings have existed and protest movements aimed at Wall St greed are gaining traction. The Euro Zone is teetering on the precipice of existence, with the possibility of Greece defaulting sending shockwaves through markets worldwide. Not to mention Spain and Portugal, who may need a Wall St style bail-out from German and Italian banks, further straining the world’s economy. Recently, the Bank of Japan Governor, Masaaki Shirakawa outlined a bleak assessment of the world’s third largest economy, which is already strained in response to the March 2011 tsunami.

The results of these conditions are reverberating throughout the economy from the retail sector to employment to the housing market, with citizens worldwide tightening their belts in anticipation of further bad news. Fashion trends have been affected, with mass-market produced copies of high end styles becoming the rule of the day (think Zara), and in the realm of architecture, the recession is characterising approaches to design and construction.

We take a look at the top trends in architecture for 2011.

No Frills
It’s not just shoppers on a budget reaching for the Black and Gold alternative in supermarkets. Architects are frequently designing homes with a decreased emphasis on frivolous extras. Currently extravagance is taking a backseat to practical thinking, with honest architecture falling in line with the desires of homeowners who are looking to simplify their lives. This focus on minimalism is defining interior spaces with natural finishes, clean lines and few trivial trappings.

Exterior speaking, uncomplicated massing mixed with elevations is leading to a resurgence in the plain box design as value engineering conforms to shrinking budgets. This simplified form leads to further cost reductions by being generally cheaper to frame, plumb, heat, cool and maintain.

Smaller Dwellings
They say that bigger is better, but with conspicuous consumption yesterdays flavour, the smart money is on smaller houses and buildings with smarter designs. In a bid to minimise debt, both buyers and the banks are looking to invest in smaller dwellings that suit simpler needs.

Smaller, smarter houses are also coming into vogue as land in Australia becomes increasingly expensive and unavailable. In 2009 trendsetting architect Domenic Alvaro and partner Sue Basset turned a 7m x 6m former car park into a luxury apartment by designing small and tall. The location was Surry Hills in Sydney, an envious suburb that any larger land would’ve cost an arm and a leg. Thanks to intelligent architecture, the couple realised their inner-city dream.

Natural Materials
Not all architectural trends are just notches on a tightening belt, with lifestyle choices infusing the architectural world. Organic foods are becoming more popular, but what about organic materials? ‘The farm-to-table movement has now entered the design sphere,’ proclaimed kitchen designers Mick De Giulio, Jamie Drake and Matthew Quinn in a recent kitchen trends report released by Sub-Zero and Wolf. Key points of their forecast on trends are that the kitchen is integrating health and wellness lifestyles and honest use of noble materials. Jenny Sullivan of website Builder says ‘buyers will soon be paying more attention to healthy details such as low-VOC paints, stains and sealants… along with cabinets and furniture made from natural products such as hay, wheat, eucalyptus, bamboo and aspen.’

Green Building
Previously reserved for hippies with cash, sustainable building is becoming more and more common. Ways that designers and builders are approaching a balance with the environment are rainwater tanks, drought-tolerant landscaping, permeable hardscapes and increased use of passive solar design. Some houses now are being built with tiles made entirely from solar panels.

Also in line with the green architecture trend is doing as little to disrupt the natural environment as possible. The result of this consideration is using the natural landscape as part of the structure of the house by building into hills and carving houses from stone.

The Centrepiece
The dining table has long been the centrepiece of the family home. But what about the cook slaving away in the kitchen while everyone else enjoys a cocktail while waiting to eat? Architects are looking to solve this injustice by making the kitchen the central social area of the home. No longer out of sight, the preparation of meals is to be an inclusive experience, with open plan kitchens incorporated into living spaces the solution to dinner-time apartheid.

Mixed Influences
Blame it on Gaga, but matching your belt with your shoes isn’t so much a consideration these days, as personal style, eccentricity and eclecticism has become the norm. The sociologists would call this trend mass personalisation, while an oxymoronic idea, it’s still one that’s taken hold, even in the design world. Mixing different styles, wood types and paint finishes is what the hipsters will be doing, while accentuating a global and ancestral style of objects around the house. A pillaging of styles from the Elizabethan period to the 1940s will be mixed with the colour schemes and minimalist furniture in vogue in 2011.

And it’s not just the past that will make up the mise-en-scène of the home, with international influences, particularly indigenous African and South American, presenting a global awareness in the house.

Jamie Drake of Sub-Zero and Wolf explains the implication for the kitchen, which as mentioned above, is one of the main focuses of current trends, ‘we are no seeing clients infuse meaningful personal experiences in kitchen design. The application of global and custom elements is wonderfully exciting, particularly in a room of the house that was once so utilitarian.’

Not only are most of these trends environmentally and economically minded, they’re also cutting-edge and inclusive.

Check out the a preview of how Domenic Alvaro’s tiny house was built