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If you don't like a specific musical style, the theater bores you, or you're not attracted to works of art, you can almost always avoid them. Architecture, however, is different. A poorly thought-out project will affect the lives of many people consistently and for a long time. With interiors, this effect is even more amplified. Humanity is spending more and more time indoors, which directly impacts our well-being and health. In periods of compulsory retirement, as in the current pandemic of Covid-19, we gain a sense of how important interior spaces are for our well-being and even for the prevention of diseases. Designing an indoor environment is a huge responsibility for a professional. An interior designer must plan, research, coordinate, and manage these projects to obtain an adequately healthy and aesthetically pleasing environment for the people who use the space. But what, in fact, is interior design?

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MVRDV’ s entry, Shenzhen Terraces, has been selected from 27 projects as the winner in a competition to design a 101,300-square-metre mixed-use Shimao ShenKong International Center. The multi-level urban living room is located in Universiade New Town, Longgang District, Shenzhen, China.

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Outdoor space, whether large or small, deck, porch or patio, is increasingly becoming the place to fully enjoy the seasons, almost an extension of the indoor space and, no matter what you call it, worthy of the same careful design consideration. Outdoor furnishings, which have reached new heights in terms of performance and durability, have achieved the perfect blend of elegance and comfort. The challenge can lie in choosing just which furniture is the best fit for your outdoor space.

Flexform, a company with decades of experience in manufacturing high-end furniture, is now launching an outdoor collection that includes seating systems, sofas, armchairs, tables, chairs, and many accessories. The line features pieces from designers with whom Flexform has a history of collaborating, including Antonio Citterio, and outdoor reinterpretations of products designed by Mario Asnago and Claudio Vender. Continue reading for a quick guide of possible factors for consideration when furnishing an exterior space, with examples from the Flexform outdoor collection.

The Future Homes Project has announced a new residential design competition with a $500,000 prize pool. Organized by the Victorian government, the competition aims to produce better apartment designs that are sustainable and promote livability. The projects should demonstrate how great design can improve the quality of new homes and successfully integrate with existing neighborhoods.

In 2018, the UN released an article stating that 55% of the world’s population already lived in urban areas, predicting that by 2050 this percentage would reach 68%. This trend toward greater urbanization carries with it several implications regarding environmental degradation and social inequality. According to National Geographic, urban growth increases air pollution, endangers animal populations, promotes the loss of urban tree cover, and heightens the likelihood of environmental catastrophes such as flash flooding. These health hazards and catastrophic phenomena may be more likely to impact poorer populations, as larger cities tend to demonstrate higher rates of economic inequality and uncontrolled growth tends to produce unequal distributions of space, services, and opportunities.

To mitigate these negative effects of urbanization, designers are increasingly prioritizing sustainability and the maximization of available space – allowing more people to occupy less space with a smaller footprint.

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Videos

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