The Art of Luxury

The term luxury belongs to those evanescent words such as happiness, beauty, style with a hard to comprehend nature even more difficult to define……

Real luxury living cannot ever truly be given a specific definition. It’s a natural process that sets about as a seed deep within the soul and blossoms through our everyday lifestyle choices. However, there are a few common characteristics shared by luxe spaces. Let’s unpack the true essence of luxury designs.

Envisioning the whole

High-end design is not only to keep the pattern of symmetry, it is about bringing forth the real diamond that shines within us all, authenticity… The authentic design is a canvas for creativity, inspiration, and exploration. And all these three are the context and the story that forms the real footing in the art of luxury designs.

A high-end designer listens to a client’s vision and translates that into a one-of-a-kind look where every aspect perfectly fits together to create a brilliant high-end product. Hence “customized design” has the magic power in both luxurious residential and commercial designs that are created according to the client’s needs and taste. The custom is the heart of luxury aesthetic.

Comfort is key

The gift of luxury means living in a state of comfort and convenience; where your environment and the systems that make it function smoothly, serve you, the user. It should feel warm, inviting, and unique in its characteristics and at the same time invoke an emotion of extreme well-being.

The quality of early luxurious designs, interiors and objects were once marked by opulence and extravagance, but today we look to design to not only fill us with a sense of pride and accomplishment; but rather, lend a feeling of being alive, nurtured and comfortable.

More about the experience

The perfect luxurious environment is different for everyone, there isn’t a one-fits-all solution, this is especially prominent in the high-end sector where people want to embrace their passions and adjust the design to suit their lifestyle.

Each person has different ideas when it comes to experiencing luxury, what remains consistent and perhaps the most important experience is the one when you walk into the place and instantly feel relaxed. When luxury design is rooted in the cohesive combination of shapes, colors, textures and proportions, it always feels right and greatly enhances an experience in which all the human senses are engaged.

Complementary to every style Luxury design can offer inspiration and bring personality to various design styles. Whether your taste is timeless classical, ultra-modern or tends to veer more towards contemporary minimalism of Scandinavian aesthetic, there are ways to ensure a lux feel with the help of sophisticated materials and decadent detailing. Clutter is anathema in high-end design and superfluous is rarely better. It can be distracting and instantly in still a sense of chaos and disorderliness. A high-end design feels curated and every element should feel like it always belonged there.

Luxury design is a creative process led by experienced interior designers. It embraces the true joy of living and the beauty of the surrounding nature or vibrant city landscape. At every stage of the design process, every element is crucial; from the architectural 3D design to functional layout to the final decor touches.

The modern luxury design explores new ideas, pays close attention to every detail and carefully considers materials and finishes. To make the concept of “luxury” strong, the overall design should be well-executed without losing authenticity and should reflect the user’s personal needs and taste, improve their quality of life and the experience of their environment. Various design strategies are used to create a feeling of depth, visual weight and dimension to any design and to evoke the many layers of exclusiveness.

Less is beautiful

Less is beautiful Consistently perfecting modern luxury design means creating a space that’s thoughtfully designed but not ostentatious. It’s an art of restricting yourself to using only the most necessary elements despite having a big budget. Natural materials and Sustainability One of the essential stages of the luxury interior design process is selecting the colors, textures and materials that are inviting and feel fabulous. All materials and fabrics should add to the overall character of the space and convey a sense of rarity without seeming pretentious.

Today, combining different finishes and materials that are great for our surrounding environment has become a very rewarding way of creating stylish designs. Stone, metal, organic fabric and wood can be set as good examples. Eco-friendly materials add a unique character with a layer of authentic importance.

Professional designers no longer debate about the idea of consolidating luxury and sustainability: luxury is already becoming environmentally conscious. Although the luxury interiors can be rather opulent, it is never overstated and balance is easily created to ensure it melds seamlessly into other aesthetics for a refined and comfortable finish. Consistency in design A well-executed luxury interior design plan demonstrates balance and unity being in perfect harmony throughout an entire space. Each design element complements each other and flows effortlessly to avoid a collection of unrelated spaces.

A refined design plan has unifying elements such as line, repetition, shape and rhythm that carry through the whole design, varied slightly to adhere the specific function and purpose. The principle of visual continuity takes an expert’s eye to achieve.

The Art of Minimalism

The Art of Minimalism

Minimalism is a style in art and design that uses the smallest range of materials and colors possible, and only very simple shapes or forms.

Minimalist art is a design style that emphasizes extreme simplicity, focusing on clean lines, minimalist color, and basic shapes. Minimalist art does not contain an underlying meaning or more profound understanding, like with most abstract art. Minimalist art style focuses on aesthetics, structure, and texture rather than the artist’s individuality or self-expression.

During its time, the minimalist art movement was innovative in its approach as artists emphasized the genuine essence of the medium and material to create the art. Minimalism, viewed as an extension of abstract art, is characterized by the elimination of fundamental forms to reveal the art object's purity and beauty.

But as time passed, minimalism evolved with different meanings for different people. Minimalism is not just about art, minimalism can also apply to the art of living, architecture, fashion, design, literature, music and home decor. The words that best describe minimalist ideas are reductionist, simple, uncluttered, smooth, and almost anything that expresses the fundamental aspects of an artwork.

While these are typical applications in modern times, it is helpful to gain context on how minimalism has evolved over time to what it is today. Below, there you find the best description of what minimalism is.

From an aesthetic point of view, minimalist art provides a refined beauty. It may also be regarded as representing qualities such as truth (because it does not claim to be anything but what it is), order, simplicity and harmony. MFocus on The Viewernimalism embraces this literalism, highlighting the physical properties of the art object. Below are a few characteristics of minimalism.

The Characteristics of Minimalism

Repetition

There is often some form of repetition in minimalist style. Minimalist artists create multiple images of the same shape, especially simple geometric forms like lines and squares.

Geometric Shape

Minimalist art makes good use of geometry and the use of elements and shapes in order to have the greatest expressiveness with the resources used. We also can say that minimalist designs, paintings and sculptures always rely on geometric shapes. In particular the square and rectangle are the most important forms used in minimalist art.

Simplicity

Simple structure and appearance are some of the definitive characteristics of minimalist art. The minimalist style is typically characterized by geometric shapes, clean lines or simple color combinations. Minimalism style is often regarded as more “pure" and streamlined than other art forms.

Limited Color Choices

Another identifier of minimalist style is the use of color, minimalist style focuses on expressionless colors. Early works tended to be monochromatic, limited to one color and related hues (such as black, gray, and white). This makes the design more neutral in its approach and the color does not become more than what it is.

Precise and Hard-Edged

Minimalist design is looking for hard-edged, precise borders between areas of color. There isn't any shading or subtle transition. This is why the square and rectangle are so popular as they give this specific shape and hard edges.

Lack of Expression

Most minimalist art lacks expression. The minimalist artist does not reveal their personality or emotions in the artwork. When you stand in front of a Minimalist painting, you won't see big ideas, complex subjects, or social agendas. The paintings are about geometry and color. Minimalist art is art for art rather than emotion.

Industrial Materials

To Minimalist art, materials were a crucial aspect of their artwork. Minimalist artists favored raw, unadorned, and often mass-produced materials, which demonstrated their rejection of the conventional ideals of craftsmanship and artistry.

These minimalist artists often employed industrial materials such as metal, concrete, and glass to create their works, highlighting the materials inherent qualities, characteristics and their relationship with the surrounding environment.

Focus on The Viewer

In order to emphasize the relationship between the artwork and the viewer, Minimalist style often employs simplicity and reduction of form to invite the viewer to engage with it directly and on their own terms.

Minimalism | Minimalist Materials

Minimalist artists often stayed away from traditional art materials in favor of manufacturing techniques, commercial materials, and industrial fabrication. By doing so, they aimed to eliminate any evidence of the artist's hand that might otherwise be evident in brushstrokes or other marks. In rejecting the notion that art should reflect personal expression or ideas, minimalist artists also rejected the use of color to convey emotion or mood, opting instead to use it primarily for spatial delineation.

To minimalist artists, house paint and fiberglass were more valuable materials than fine oil paints or clay. The use of industrial materials also reflected their intention to create objects that existed within the realm of everyday life, rather than as rarefied or precious objects. Overall, the use of unconventional materials and techniques played a key role in the minimalist art movement, contributing to its emphasis on simplicity, reduction, and physicality.

Minimalism | Minimalist Architecture

The concept of minimalist architecture is to strip everything down to its essential quality and achieve simplicity. The idea is not completely without ornamentation, but that all parts, details, and joinery are considered as reduced to a stage where no one can remove anything further to improve the design.

The considerations for 'essences' are light, form, detail of material, space, place, and human condition. Minimalist architects not only consider the physical qualities of the building.

They consider the spiritual dimension and the invisible, by listening to the figure and paying attention to details, people, space, nature, and materials, believing this reveals the abstract quality of something that is invisible and aids the search for the essence of those invisible qualities—such as natural light, sky, earth, and air. In addition, they "open a dialogue" with the surrounding environment to decide the most essential materials for the construction and create relationships between buildings and sites.

In minimalist architecture, design elements strive to convey the message of simplicity. The basic geometric forms, elements without decoration, simple materials and the repetitions of structures represent a sense of order and essential quality. The movement of natural light in buildings reveals simple and clean spaces.

In the late 19th century as the arts and crafts movement became popular in Britain, people valued the attitude of 'truth to materials' with respect to the profound and innate characteristics of materials. Minimalist architects humbly 'listen to figure,' seeking essence and simplicity by rediscovering the valuable qualities in simple and common materials.

Minimalism | Minimalist Sculpture

In contrast to the previous decade's more subjective abstract expressionists, some minimalists explicitly stated that their art was not about self-expression, theirs was 'objective'.

Minimalism has existed in many forms, but minimalist sculptors have developed the concept of minimalism in art.

Minimalist sculptures aimed to create an awareness of space in the viewer. The artworks were arranged thoughtfully to highlight and expose the architecture of the gallery, often displayed on walls, in corners, or directly on the floor. The minimalist sculptors deliberately rejected the conventional pedestal or base, effectively eliminating the traditional sculpture approach.

The minimalist artist Robert Morris once said, "Simplicity of shape does not necessarily equate with simplicity of experience." Through this declaration, we believe that minimalist sculpture can be better understood by keeping an open mind and paying close attention to the artists who pioneered its ways.

Minimalism | Minimalist Painting

The minimalist paintings are about geometry and color. Similar to minimalist sculptors, minimalist painters aimed to produce objects with a strong sense of presence, characterized by their fundamental physical appearance and appreciated at face value. Minimalist painters have produced abstract works featuring repeated geometric and industrial shapes, without any significant thematic or emotional content.

Envisioning the Future

Envisioning the Future

As our world evolves, so do our needs and challenges, from environmental sustainability and cost efficiency to space scarcity. In response, the field of architecture is continuously pushing the boundaries to address these pressing issues through innovative design and technology.

While traditional architectural development can take years to evolve, the urgency of these problems has accelerated the pace of innovation. Architecture is evolving to address the present and future challenges, including sustainability, environmental concerns, and space scarcity.

Biophilic design, green roofs, and biophilic urbanism are emerging trends that aim to integrate nature into our built environment, combatting the Urban Heat Island Effect and providing comfortable indoor environments. Sustainable architecture is becoming a permanent fixture, and the shift towards organic and recycled materials is gaining momentum.

3D printing is revolutionizing the industry, making it more efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective. Adaptive reuse architecture preserves the character and heritage of locations while positively impacting the environment.

Some top trends that are shaping the future of architecture and redefining the possibilities of our built environment.

Biophilic Design

This days, biophilic design, a concept that seeks to integrate natural elements and reconnect humans with nature, has been playing an increasingly critical role in architecture.

The reason for this is apparent: human well-being is inherently linked to our connection with the natural world. Integrating biophilic design principles into architecture is essential for creating healthy and thriving environments for people to live, work, and play in.

Biophilic Urbanism, which combines the principles of biophilic design and urbanism, is an emerging trend in architecture that aims to integrate nature into our urban environments through various strategies such as courtyards, green roofs, walls, and balconies. These elements enhance our connection with nature and offer numerous environmental benefits, including combatting the Urban Heat Island Effect.

The Urban Heat Island Effect is a phenomenon in which urban areas experience higher temperatures than surrounding rural areas due to the concentration of heat-absorbing surfaces such as buildings, roads, and pavement.

Sustainability remains a reigning priority

Biophilic Urbanism can help to mitigate this effect by incorporating green infrastructure, such as green roofs and walls, which provide shade and help to absorb heat. This, in turn, can lower surface and air temperatures and reduce the need for energy-intensive cooling systems.

Moreover, biophilic design strategies like natural light and efficient airflow can also help reduce energy consumption and lower indoor temperatures. This approach creates more comfortable indoor environments, which can improve occupants’ health and well-being.

The architecture trends of green architecture and eco-conscious living are not just a passing fad but rather permanent fixtures. Given the current state of the world, sustainable solutions and the use of natural or recycled materials are the only viable options moving forward.

This trend involves a shift from synthetic materials to organic ones, such as wool, cotton, bamboo, linoleum, and cork, used in various design elements, including flooring, furniture, textiles, and building materials.

People recognize the benefits of investing in high-quality, long-lasting products for their homes that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also eco-friendly. It is becoming a crucial factor when searching for a new property, with people leaning towards choosing home goods that are zero-waste, artisan-produced, or up-cycled.

Moreover, innovative materials are gaining traction in the industry, with smart glass being an excellent example. Smart glass has the ability to vary transparency levels based on the time of day and other factors, providing a functional and energy-efficient solution for homeowners.

Intelligent Living Spaces

The trend toward energy-efficient homes has gained significant momentum in recent years. In addition to reducing living and construction costs, these homes have a smaller environmental footprint, making them an attractive option for eco-conscious homeowners.

With rising living and construction costs, many are turning to sustainable housing solutions with minimal environmental footprint. The passive house standards, prioritizing energy efficiency, will likely become more prevalent in building design, reducing carbon emissions and creating a more sustainable future for our planet.

As architects and builders continue experimenting with innovative and efficient designs, we can expect to see a wide range of unique and inspiring homes that meet the growing demand for sustainable living.

Finally, the trend toward intelligent living spaces provides more energy-efficient homes that promote simplicity and minimalism.