Top Design Trends of 2018: Forest Interiors

As 2018 draws to a close, we’re looking back at the debuts and launches from the year’s design fairs, taking stock of ideas and imperatives driving the industry, like the evolution of work or the refinement of a sustainable consciousness. But we’re also digesting the visual and material themes that emerged throughout the year in fairs from Milan to Chicago, Helsinki to New York, Cologne to Stockholm.

Maybe it’s tautological to note the current trend of nature motifs grafted onto modern forms. After all, this is what the industry has taken to calling biophilic design, though that label’s application bears interrogating. Still, there is something new about these visual quotations, which lean more elfin forest than manicured plant wall. They present the forms of nature’s echoes: the shadows of trees, erosion by rivers. These pieces are fitting companions to our urban lives, now that wilderness has become mythical.

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