"Every great architect is -- necessarily -- a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his time, his day, his age."
These words from on the greatest architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, are more significant today than ever before. A true architect is a visionary who can foresee the needs of the future and plan homes (and lives) ages ahead of them. 2017 was a landmark year with new trends in architecture. As 2017 is coming to an end, let us have a look at what the future of the architecture industry holds.
Public and private spaces come together
As more and more people gather in urban areas, cities today are largely facing a space crunch.
Long traffic jams have called for a change in the way cities organise their space.
Result: Combination of public and private spaces. Earlier, cities had fixed designated areas marked as residential, commercial, and industrial.
However, in 2018 expect more merging of these spaces. This makes the need for transport minimal, thereby keeping residents happier.
Increased emphasis on outdoor living
With the evolution of living room and dining rooms into common areas with an open space layout, there has been a gradual disappearance of formal spaces in urban homes.
As homes are progressively de-formalised, we will see an increase in emphasis on outdoor living. Until a few years back, outdoor areas mainly comprised of the balcony, decks, patios, and outdoor grills, but now you can easily find outdoor kitchens.
Some house owners go a step further with fully furnished outdoor rooms.
Eco-friendliness will reach a new level
Green terrace, eco-friendly material, green walls, green bridges, we have seen it all.
While there is a wave of creating eco-friendliness in every industry, it is architecture that has created new trends.
Green roofs and green walls are expected to be very popular in 2018.
In addition, we can also expect to see more of green inside the buildings. Indoor parks are expected to be the next big thing along with micro-climates.
New houses made of wood and mud
Cross-laminated timber panels are way stronger and fire-resistant than traditional wood.
This newfound availability has allowed architects to design not only homes but huge skyscrapers with timber.
Traditional concrete and iron houses are being replaced with newly found materials. In addition to wood, dirt mixture is constantly being tested and experimented with. These changing technologies are surely going to re-image some conventional building types and have a huge impact on the kind of materials used by architecture.
Starchitecture – The newest trend
Traditional rectangle shaped buildings are so passé. Over last few years, we have seen a growing trend of architecture called starchitecture where architects have come up with some marvellous eye-catching designs.
One amazing example of starchitecture is the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, designed by Frank Gehry. We expect many such buildings based on this concept in 2018.
This article is contributed by RoofandFloor , part of KSL Digital Ventures Pvt. Ltd., from The Hindu Group
