INNOVATION AND SUSTAINABILITY

INSIDE OR OUTSIDE?

When the outside world has become too complicated, too stressful or too virulent, he withdraws into his small world. Changed needs call for new concepts. Now is the time for biophilic design.

The year started so harmlessly! But since March at the latest we have been confronted with an invisible and incalculable danger that also bears the name of a well-known type of beer. It turns a lot upside down, shakes us through as if in a frenzy – open end.

Scientists had been predicting these developments for years. The growing world population and our way of life lead to climate catastrophe and to the fact that humans spread worldwide into areas in which they actually have no business. And there it is! The wild animal that loses its habitat and infects our organism with viruses that it neither knows nor has any idea how to render them harmless.

STAY AT HOME

Now we are confronted with completely new terms and situations: aerosols, lockdown, social distancing – a contradiction in terms, how should “social” and “distancing” succeed as a pairing? The innocent height of 1.5 m is suddenly assigned a vital role. Masks, which in beautiful, individual patterns ensure that we do not randomly pollinate our environment with our rain of droplets, popped up in the shops surprisingly quickly. That’s how fast it works with improvising, if necessary.

The interior, which has previously offered protection, is declared a danger. Distances, grids, face masks now determine the use of the rooms. It’s good that it’s summer right now and we’re drawn out anyway. But what if you can go back into the cozy warmth in autumn? Corona or whatever falls upon us afterwards, will probably not let go of us any longer and also no longer in peace.

Then we stay at home! Employers have finally understood that working from home does not lead to complete loss of performance and loss of control – on the contrary, the last few months have shown how efficiently one’s own four walls can be used for concentrated work. General tenor: it stays! No return! Now we just have to get our work / balance under control again.

MODEL NATURE

And the offices? At home is now an office and the office is becoming even more of a social meeting point, which, in addition to countless video conferences, serves to meet colleagues in real life. Flexible working environments become individual spaces of opportunity. Actually not completely new: same same but different.

Interior design is now in demand like never before. To what extent can the boundaries between outside and inside blur? Can clever spatial planning avert the danger? So let’s bring nature inside. In addition to ventilation systems, you need good materials that ensure healthy air to breathe – filter the pollutants from the air and regulate the humidity in rooms.

BIOPHILIC DESIGN

The term “biophilic design”, which has been used inflationarily, has far-reaching powers. It has been scientifically proven that the illusion of nature, be it through jungle wallpaper or glass walls printed with foliage, ensures greater well-being and increased performance, but such “attempts at fraud” do not lead to a healthy indoor climate. Even the hip terracotta flower pot hung in a trendy macrame hanging basket looks pretty, but does little. Only enough real leaf green has been shown to lower our stress level and release creativity and productivity.

So always keep your distance. Don’t forget the spook protection, in its ugliness still a contender for the word 2020 or the Golden Raspberry. Social distancing despite real meeting situations. Countless requirements are waiting to be spatially implemented, both in order to feel safe from precisely those aerosols in the rare encounter with colleagues, as well as to live the necessary distances, grid and hygiene measures through well-planned interiors.

A new era has begun: BC / AC – before Corona / after Corona – then a cold beer!