This is a guest post and it’s more like of an inspirational type one… so please read enjoy and comment if you please
Scratch any architect, and you will find an artist. The “designer look” in a modern building, thanks to CAD and a new generation of truly inspired architects, extends to the foundations. Even the idea of flooring has now been incorporated into CAD and commercial software in dramatic and beautiful ways. This truly is the beginning of a new era, and most importantly, it’s a lot of fun.
The relationship between architecture and lifestyle is ancient. The earliest and simplest of buildings were based on hunter/gatherer and agrarian lifestyles. The most modern buildings are designed on a combination of aesthetics and functionality. The “designer look” actually is and always has been a hybrid.
The difference now is that CAD, the New Economy and technology have combined to fuel the inspirations of a generation of artists. The unparalleled growth of new design concepts in the last 20 years has set the stage for an even bigger revolution.
Lifestyle needs have changed drastically in the space of one generation. The home now has multiple functions and the conceptual chains of old suburban living are falling away. The new “designer look” can relate to any lifestyle. Modular buildings can create multiple living modes.
Product engineering is also going through a major revolution. If you can design something using CAD, you can build it or manufacture it. Vastly expanded creative capabilities are now the core power source for design inspiration.
One of the most glaringly obvious cases of this is the virtual explosion in new fabric designs and manufacturing capabilities. From Chinese fashion week to Saks Fifth Avenue was a major step for the fashion industry for computer-based designs, but for interior design fabrics the new design possibilities have already gone all the way to the manufacturing level.
The new “designer look” doesn’t actually have any limits. Even something as basic as a carpet can be turned into a true series of design options and visualized using special software for its environment. In the same way that architects have been freed from shoebox designs, interior designers have been released from visual clichés and stale design concepts.
Even furniture design has altered dramatically. The days when Bauhaus and the 60s were the last words in design concepts are well and truly over. If you want a “designer look” that is absolutely unique, custom-made and perfectly suited to the design of your home, you can get it.
There were major issues for industrial production in this phenomenon. Tacky, mass-produced rubbish not only looked terrible, but its actual production was also extremely wasteful, costly and inefficient. The goods may have been cheap, but the real cost is being borne at the end of the product life cycle.
That’s not the case with the new designs. Designer materials can now be costed throughout their entire life cycle, and production methodologies can now be tailored to produce extremely high quality goods cost effectively.
The “designer look” is here to stay. Lifestyles will never be the same again. If you’re a designer, welcome to the Promised Land. You will find that your talents are very much in demand, and that your inspirations are endless.
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