NZ - What special trends in interior design rule
in Russia?
LE - The Russian interior
market is in its baby shoes and so I think that the arrival of as many good
designers and brands as possible is a great step in educating the consumer and
design professionals alike. This young market should highlight local talent and
expose Russia to the most important international trends.
While Russia will continue
to embrace the hedonism of decoration and faceted or sparkling design, we are
actually entering a new more austere period where Constructivism is making a
revival and influencing contemporary interiors, placing Russia in a great
place. The neo-Constructivist movement is just one of many trend currents, but
it can already be seen in Scandinavia, the Netherlands and other parts of the
world too. Constructed, abstract and artistic design will give colourful shape
to the future, reflecting on things past, yet translated for tomorrow.
Essential linear forms will illuminate the interior, composed of graphic
elements and geometric textiles (which are making a major comeback!).
NZ - What social trends will lead the future of
interiors in Europe next 10 years?
LE - After a difficult start
to the decade with wars, terrorists, viruses, protests, pirates and two
financial crises, we are finally tearing ourselves away from last century, as
we see a new social coherence and a new collective style emerging on the
horizon. Humankind is in mutation, as are therefore also the production
processes and the ways we communicate are changing too.
It is clear that the this
century will be one of connectivity and networking and of social cohesion and
functioning within a group, without losing personal traits and talents. It is
therefore in the world of design that we can already detect such new names and
brands as couples, brothers or collectives; the studio or the house becoming
more important than the creator, the mutual energy more than the sum of its
parts. This is why we see that, although the unique and the crafted continue
being very important, there will be a great emerging interest in the serial and
the industrial that will ultimately engender the revival of a modernist
lifestyle. Our current obsession with sustainability, quality of life and
well-being will help influence these more pragmatic arising choices.
A stiller lifestyle will
represent more time for reflection and making precise choices, for the search
of equilibrium between the industrial and the crafted, for harmony among the
trusted and the nostalgic or the unknown and avant gardist, for the interplay
amid light and air, within the solid and the heavy, and seeking the colourful
and neutral also. A still life composed of variations on one single form, on
one only material or one sole mentality, as a picture of the dominant social
structures building our future like a group, a school, a chain or an extended
family of form.