Today more than ever, personal well-being is crucial in the daily lives of consumers. All or almost all of us have come to understand and recognize the importance that the design of physical environments and systems has on our health: the need for clean air, more open spaces and tranquility are real priorities, not holistic aspirations.
People today live very busy lives due not only to busy lifestyles, but also because there really is nowhere left to get away from it all safely. We are surrounded by concrete urban landscapes that create further visual and acoustic pollution, stimuli that we often bring into our homes.
One of the most growing trends is precisely that of spaces optimized for personal well-being.
Practices, devices and architectures that support safety, cleanliness and health are also strong: many consumers seek a return to nature as a way to slow down and embrace calm and tranquility.
The target? Very simple: more personal well-being in chaotic urban environments and bad for physical and mental health. To better understand the trajectories at play in this increasingly important trend, I try to outline three key trends. These are developments that will combine technology and a natural approach to support personal well-being.
Healing systems
As architecture and engineering embrace the idea that built systems and environments impact people's personal physical and emotional well-being, they are embracing new biophilic and human-centered design principles. A renewed attention is paid to lighting, to air quality, sound environments and materials to create spaces that work in synergy with natural rhythms to promote greater health and happiness.
Some examples: Airytail, Innovate, Bioclouds, Strava, Mosquito valley
Indoor farming
Ideas like local and farm-to-table remain important aspects of the food and dining experience. With the improvements of agricultural technology and its efficiency, coupled with increasing the scale of production, there is hope that small-scale farming will become more viable. For everyone, huh? Both for businesses and consumers who want healthier food. The vertical gardens and other growing solutions are extending seasonality and further reducing the distance food has to travel to get to a plate. As well as increasing the sustainability impact people can have at home.
Some examples: Emotion cube, Jellyfish Barge, Nutraponics, home garden
More nature
In the chaos of urban landscapes and technology, people want to “slow down in nature.” Scientific studies support the health benefits (both physical and mental) of activities such as playing in the dirt, walking in the woods or simply wandering around a terrace with plants. This is why designers and architects create environments and solutions that they bring the outside inside and they encourage people to integrate nature more deeply into their daily life.
