ASID Releases 2024 Trends Outlook Report

Furniture World News Desk on 2/2/2024

Today, the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) released its 2024 Trends Outlook, a research report identifying shifts in societal and demographic trends impacting, or predicted to impact, interior design in the year ahead. Key findings in 2024 explore four overarching trends that will impact the design practice in transformative ways: consumers’ desire for connection, the allure of quiet luxury, blurred lines between live-work-and-play, and the intersection of sustainability and wellness with life and business.

Compiled from a broad scan of media sources, as well as the Pew Research Center, the U.S. Census Bureau, along with ASID research and surveys, the report offers a comprehensive view of American life and assesses the implications for the interior design and adjacent communities.

“The world today recognizes the leading role design plays in impacting the ways we live, work, learn, play and heal,” said Khoi Vo, chief executive officer, ASID. “This report serves as a compass to guide us in the year ahead, knowing that design is critical when considering everything from personal wellness to a corporation’s bottom line. As the largest professional organization serving all sectors of the interior design community, ASID is dedicated to providing our community with tools to impact the world through design.”

The findings of the 2024 report underscore the importance of authenticity and connection, which serves as an undercurrent to many of the trends affecting design— from generational and familial shifts to work-life balance and quiet luxury. Highlights include a wide range of topics including sustainability, health and wellness, family and home, the future of the workplace, AI, and the impact of Gen Z, among others:

• Living With & Learning From Gen Z: As the most racially and ethnically diverse generation, those in Gen Z have distinctly different priorities than prior generations. Following recent health-related, political, social, and cultural issues, Gen Z’s experiences over the years have shaped and shifted their desire for genuine connections. Moving forward in 2024, designers should consider this change in consumer culture and use the generation’s evolving empathies and concerns to inform future design decisions.

• Solo Living & Seeking Connection: The American family has undergone significant change in recent decades, and Americans are experiencing family life in increasingly different ways, including through the rise of one-person households. With solo-living on the rise, Americans are seeking connectedness to loved ones and their communities. Through gathering spaces within the home, considerations of family pets in design, and amusement and “eatertainment,” designers can use their practice to further their clients’ connections in 2024.

The 2024 report also details trends impacting the different sectors of design, highlighting the effects of these trends in both residential and commercial spaces:

• Wellness in Gathering Spaces:  Like many restaurants and bars, kitchens are now using large window walls to connect visually with the outdoors, while living rooms are using retractable window panels to extend spaces onto patios. Beyond increasing the ease of entertaining, connecting both visually and physically with nature has been shown to reduce blood pressure and heart rates and improve engagement, attentiveness and cognitive performance.

• Aging in Place: More than one in four adults fall each year and the fear of falling can limit older adults, resulting in further physical decline, depression and social isolation. According to the National Institute on Aging, many people want to stay in their own home and maintain independence for as long as possible, and they will need help to retrofit their homes. “Innovative solutions that enable the elderly to remain in their own homes for longer, rather than taking up space in hospitals, hospices and nursing homes” are increasingly important as a significant number of the population ages.

• Blending Sustainability & Wellness: As companies and designers think holistically about creating environments that support better human health, many are increasingly recognizing the interconnectedness of individual health, community health and environmental stewardships. With many firms implementing tactics in both buildings and employee programs to synthesize sustainability and wellness, we’re seeing an increase in design decisions contributing to personal wellness and building health including better indoor air quality, increased natural light, and other amenities. Sustainability is especially prevalent in 2024 as we tackle extreme weather events with most Americans believing that climate change is harming people in the U.S. and likely to get worse.

Finally, the report provides insight on trends impacting the business side of interior design and how practices are shifting in the year to come. This year’s finding include:

• AI & Technology have been revolutionizing the design industry: AI has long been utilized in commercial practice, but in 2024 it is gaining usage in residential markets with early adoption from younger designers. Generative AI applications are being used in a variety of applications: organizations are using AI to generate floor plans, design iterations, occupancy, and energy models, coordinated sets of construction documents, specifications and reports; while others are using it to increase autonomy, create experience-driven design and deliver environmental settings that occupants can customize. The personalization of the consumer experience is just the newest means of the impact of AI.

• Blurring the Lines Between Live-Work-Play: Recent changes in the post-pandemic workplaces have influenced a preference for unique and authentic travel experiences, and blurred the lines of living, working, staying, and playing. As the lines between work and play fade, designers need to be well-versed in cross-specialty design, blending the sectors of design through the incorporation of “eatertainment” spaces in residences, informal living rooms in corporate offices, team workspace and conference rooms in hotels, and more.

The Trends Outlook Report is the first of ASID’s three-part Outlook report series; with parts two and three, the Economic Outlook and State of Interior Design, to be released later this year. The three-part research series is generously sponsored by Sherwin Williams. Available for download on the ASID website, the Trends Report is included in ASID membership and is available for purchase for $150 for non-members.

About ASID
The American Society of Interior Designers believes that design impacts lives. Through its programs, networks, and advocacy, ASID serves all those who are a part of the interior design profession and practice. ASID thrives on the strength of cross-functional and interdisciplinary relationships among designers of all specialties, including workplace, healthcare, retail and hospitality, education, institutional, and residential. As a leader in shared conversations around topics that matter in design, from evidence-based and human-centric design to social responsibility, well-being, and sustainability, ASID showcases the impact of design on the human experience and the value interior designers provide. ASID will mark its 50th anniversary in 2025. Celebrating 50 years of industry leadership, ASID is committed to broadening the impact for the future of design in all of the places we work, play, and heal. Learn more at asid.org.